Bullet Points: Daughter of the Wolf

If I have to use more than two or three sentences to describe your action movie then there is a good chance you’re trying too hard. While there are plenty of movies that have some deep and highly complicated stories that include action, there is a greater number of films that go direct to video (or streaming, I guess) which should just keep it simple. From the synopsis below, you could say that 2019’s Daughter of the Wolf is a masterclass in simplicity.

Synopsis: A military veteran hunts the men who kidnapped her son.

• No time to waste: The movie starts with Clair (Gina Carano) heading to “the drop” to meet the kidnappers of her son. She has the money, but she also brought something else that will soon be of interest to them; a double-barreled shotgun. As you might expect, the negotiations don’t go so well and we’re soon off to the races in terms of action.
• Family matters: Clair has recently returned home after a lengthy time away serving in the military and it appears that her father has died and her teenage son isn’t her biggest fan. She was never there for him or something but now she’s back and trying to fit into his life in any way she can. Sadly, getting kidnapped by potential traffickers places a few speed bumps in her plans to re-acclimate herself to home life.

• An odd predicament: Gina Carano spends a majority of the early parts of the movie being knocked unconscious, but when she isn’t snoozing it up she’s making friends with Larsen (Brendan Fehr). He was one of the men who showed up to make the drop but ends up wounded and prisoner to Clair. The two end up delivering much of expository information to the viewer and we see that Clair begins to trust and understand his situation a little better as the film progresses.
• Father: Who would you least expect to show up as the main villain in this movie? Richard Dreyfuss. He might look eerily similar to a Faceapp’ed Paul Giamatti, but he’s clearly the type of person you don’t want hanging out with your young child.

• Release the hounds: I would have loved for Gina Carano’s character to be the literal daughter of wolves or even just to have been raised by wolves, but instead, she’s essentially just some metaphorical hunter/wolf lady. Not as cool as a chick who can run on all fours or smell fear. The real wolves, though, do quite a bit of damage on the bad guys as they pretty much track and attack them throughout the film.
• Always stand your ground: When Richard Dreyfuss isn’t playing tee ball with wolves, he’s molding young boys into pawns for his own enterprises. That usually isn’t related to charitable efforts in the poorer areas of town. We see more and more that he uses these kids for his own gain and even in his early 70’s he can be a scary dude.

• Time to fight: Gina finally gets to have a fight (which she should be doing way more often) and it’s with the girl we met three minutes earlier who has literally done nothing but get shot and survived. It kind of kills any tension with the fight since I neither know this lady’s name nor give a shit whether she dies horribly. Note to directors: Let Gina fight more often! Eventually, Clair reveals that her mutant ability is to be knocked unconscious multiple times without side effects.
• House Stark: No, she isn’t from Game of Thrones, but she does have some sort of connection to these wolves. The end of the film sees her finally make that rendezvous with the bad guys and her son all in one location and Richard Dreyfuss gets to overact as much as he pleases.

The Verdict: I can’t say anything in Daughter of the Wolf surprised me. Gina Carano gets to do some acting early on in the film but most of the movie is her chasing down the folks who took her son and walking ankle-deep in the snow. There should have been more opportunities for Carano to flex her fighting muscles. Give her a fight early on to get our interest and then deliver a couple late to really drive it home. No way is Richard Dreyfuss gonna do anything of note so he needed that right-hand man to do his fighting. Too bad they didn’t pull the trigger on Sydelle Noel’s character because she could and should have been on screen more. Definitely some missed opportunities in terms of action but a fun watch considering the short runtime and the simple plot. I think Gina has a great action flick just around the bend….