Review: Mob thriller 'I'm Your Woman' fails to rewrite genre playbook

Courtesy of Prime Video

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Between “Oceans 8,” “The Kitchen” and “Hustlers,” crime movies have gotten experimental with their presentation. In the age of streaming and trying to entice subscribers, you can’t always give consumers the same thing (or in Disney+’s case, maybe you can). In Julia Hart’s earnest though unsatisfying thriller “I’m Your Woman,” it’s a combination of both: A film that flips the gender roles of traditional mob flicks and tries to rewrite the genre playbook while luring folks to Amazon Prime Video.

Hart, who wrote the screenplay with Jordan Horowitz, sticks to basics when exploring crime, but with a twist. “I’m Your Woman” follows Rachel Brosnahan’s Jean who we’re told can’t have children, but that doesn’t stop husband Eddie from coming home with a toddler. Set in an unspecified era assumed to be around the 1970s, things hit the fan when Eddie, who Jean assumed to be a petty criminal with minimal mob affiliations, goes missing. 

Jean and the baby are whisked out of their house by hired bodyguard Cal (Arinze Kene) who takes them to a secure location until the heat dies down. Strapped with a wad of cash, a crying baby, and a confused recollection of what her husband does, Jean goes searching for answers, turning the second half of “I’m Your Woman” into a revenge crusade that predictably uncovers more secrets detrimental to the journey. 

Brosnahan is terrific and the transformation from suburban housewife to stone cold killer in “I’m Your Woman” works for the character, but considering someone whose independence drives the main narrative, you’d be surprised at how much her journey is compromised by the path Eddie - and other men - have determined. For most of the picture, Jean’s overlying arch is soured by the constant badgering of the testosterone in the room and it’s not until the final twenty minutes does she get the courage to take on the bad guys. Mind you, it’s a thrilling twenty minutes and Borsnahan sells every frame, but it’s that missing energy and focus that came before which hinders the overall experience. 

Grade: C

I‘M YOUR WOMAN debuts on Prime Video Friday, December 11th.