The Netflix original movie The Mother sees Jennifer Lopez step into a new role as a bona fide action star, but the film's ending left a lot of questions to be answered. Debuting on the streaming service on May 12th, 2023, The Mother follows the titular character (Lopez) as she protects her estranged daughter from dangerous criminals who want to kidnap her. The film was praised for the way that it showed its star in an entirely new light and director Niki Caro continued her streak of movies with strong female leads. Besides its stunning action, The Mother also featured strong themes that elevated it above its contemporaries.
Available To Stream On Netflix
Like most action films, the critical response was somewhat lackluster compared to non-genre films, but Lopez herself received high marks for playing an entirely different part than she is known for. Aside from Lopez herself, the cast of The Mother is made up of a fair mixture of newcomers and familiar faces, and Lopez' chemistry with her co-star, Lucy Paez was a bright spot in the action epic. For an actor who has been somewhat typecast in romantic comedy roles, The Mother allowed Jennifer Lopez to completely break free of the mold that Hollywood had created for her.
The Significance Of The Wolves In The Mother
Despite being a thrill-a-minute action film, The Mother also featured a pervasive theme that played out across the story. As seen early on in the movie, The Mother is reticent to harm a mother wolf even though she has no qualms about hunting, or even killing other humans. Besides the fact that killing the wolf would serve no purpose, The Mother even refused to harm the wolf when it posed a very real threat to her and Zoe. In a lot of ways, the mother wolf is symbol for The Mother herself, and the imagery goes much deeper as the film progresses.
In the mother wolf, The Mother not only sees an embodiment of her own motherhood, but she also sees the unwavering cruelty of nature as well. When the mother wolf was later discovered to be injured by some accident, The Mother refused to lend aid because she viewed that as the natural cycle of life. Even for the sake of the pups, she refused to get involved, which illustrated how she viewed her own rough upbringing that required her to fend for herself or perish. Jennifer Lopez' best movies have made her a movie star, but in The Mother, she was presented with a character possessing real depth.
What Song Plays At The End Of The Mother?
After reuniting Zoe with her foster family at the end of The Mother, it is eventually revealed that The Mother was not gone from her daughter's life, but she essentially served as Zoe's guardian angel. Underscoring the emotional reveal is the lilting voice of British pop star Kate Bush, whose haunting song, "This Woman's Work", continues over the final scene and into the credits. The song addresses unexpected challenges in motherhood, and certainly mirrors The Mother's own difficulties as a parent. Although other pop stars like Grimes and Daddy Yankee appeared on the film's soundtrack, Bush's unique ballad had the most emotional impact.
Netflix had previously found great success by using Kate Bush's music in their wildly popular show Stranger Things, and the accomplished singer is no stranger to having her music featured in movies and TV shows. However, the use of the song "This Woman's Work" in The Mother's ending not only highlighted the brilliant song, but spoke to the emotional ending itself and to the character of The Mother. Although The Mother's life had been a struggle up to that point, Kate Bush's gentle voice and lyrics implied that her life had certainly softened and found stability.
Who Was Zoe's Father?
Much was left vague in The Mother and its ending, and the identity of Zoe's father was intentionally left up in the air. Like The Mother herself who isn't named, Zoe's father isn't named either, though the candidates were essentially narrowed down to two men. It was implied that The Mother had a relationship with both Hector and Adrian, and it can be assumed that those two men were the only possible options for who Zoe's father could be. Hector mostly showed ambivalence towards Zoe being his daughter, but Adrian seemed to believe that he was the father all along.
Going so far as to refer to Zoe as he and The Mother's child, Adrian was not only motivated by his revenge against The Mother, but he went through a lot of trouble to recover Zoe. It was clear that The Mother knew who the father was, but she chose not to reveal that information because both options were unsavory. In the end, it didn't really matter who Zoe's father was because she had a fierce protector in the form of her mother who would literally stop at nothing to keep her safe.
The Meaning Of The Final Shot In The Mother
With Adrian and his team of trained goons defeated, The Mother finally felt it was safe enough to return Zoe to her adoptive family. They were reunited at a church, and, as The Mother left, she passed a statue of an angel carrying a cross. The very next scene showed the mother keeping a close eye on Zoe from a nearby apartment, and on her wrist she was wearing a handmade bracelet that said "mom". Not only did the final shot imply that The Mother would always protect Zoe like a guardian angel, it also revealed that she had finally accepted the emotional aspects of being a mother to Zoe.
The Real Meaning Of The Mother's Ending
Although the film passed The Mother off as an unstoppable hero of epic proportions, the ending proved that there was more to being a mother than simply being a protector. After her tumble down the hill, The Mother saw the wolf standing on a rock looking down on her, and it acted as her inspiration to carry on. It was also meant to teach her a lesson that softness could sometimes be just a powerful as strength. Zoe had taken pity on the stranded wolf pups earlier in the film, and it stood in stark contrast to The Mother's necessary cruelty.
Action films need their heroes to be killing machines with no emotions, but The Mother's new-found connection with her daughter Zoe taught her more than she could ever teach her child. Her life in the military had trained her how to be an efficient weapon, but true compassion was the aspect of her life that she was lacking. The ending of The Mother showed that her character arc was complete, and that she had found balance between her role as protector and her role as a loving figure for Zoe.