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February 26, 2015
Review: Everly

everly salmaEverly begins in a bathroom, where the title character (played by Salma Hayek) has locked herself in, as she hides from a group of men who don’t seem like they want to have tea and cookies with her. Tension rises as Everly reaches for a handgun. At first it seems as if she’s about to use it on herself, but soon we realize she isn’t going down without a fight, as she singlehandedly takes on her attackers eliminating them one by one. As more and more people arrive in her apartment, Everly realizes that her former boss, a ruthless criminal overlord (Hiroyuki Watanabe), has put a price tag on her head, after he found out she was a snitch. Now with her life in danger, all she wants to do is make sure her estranged mother (Laura Cepeda), and her little daughter (Aisha Ayamah) are safe.

Directed by Joe Lynch, Everly is an extremely efficient action film, in which the director takes advantage of the limited resources at hand, to create something truly memorable and devilishly entertaining. The entire film takes place in Everly’s apartment, and almost as in a video game, more thugs (that range from yakuza killers to prostitutes) arrive to give Everly a hard time. Lynch and screenwriter Yale Hannon (who co-wrote the story with the director) come up with a myriad situations that amp the action, while making the space feel much wider than it is; fights take place in every corner of the apartment, but are shot in such an imaginative way, that they might as well be happening in entirely different countries.

Through and through, it’s a pleasure to see Hayek having such a blast onscreen, her performance sometimes taking on the form of self-parody as she pokes fun at the stereotypical roles Hollywood movies often provide her with. Perhaps too simple to try and be political, the film still proves that anything boring, male action heroes can do, Salma Hayek can do much better. It’s a joy to see her relish in shooting thugs and torturing her torturers, especially when she has isolated moments of raw emotion, in which she gets to turn in a truly moving performance. Everly couldn’t be more fun if it tried, but it also should help set a precedent for more small budgeted movies starring unlikely action heroes. The world sure could use a replacement for all those “expendable” types.

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Written by: Jose Solis
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