PROUD MARY

Name: PROUD MARY
Item: PROUD MARY
Author: Steph Manthe

"Keep on Burning"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

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Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

PROUD MARY is a violent crime thriller about a hardened Mafia hit woman in Boston, Mary discovers maternal love when she shelters a 12-year-old orphaned boy, Danny, after a hit goes wrong. After being controlled by her Mafia family, Mary must fight the organization to protect Danny and win their freedom to begin a new life. She ignites a bloody war between the two biggest crime families in Boston, who until now had a truce.

PROUD MARY combines an adrenaline pumping mob story with a touching drama and some good acting. It also inserts a heartwarming lesson about the power of maternal love. However, the story falls short because it goes in too many directions. Also, the worldview is rather mixed. For example, even though Mary’s actions remain extremely violent throughout the movie, including assassinating several people, Mary risks her life several times in order to protect Danny, which reflects the great Christian principle of laying down your life for others. Despite this, the movie contains lots of criminal behavior, violence and strong foul language. So, PROUD MARY is excessive.

Content:

(PaPa, C, B, LL, VVV, S, N, A, MM)

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed pagan worldview with pagan elements mixed with Christian, moral elements in a story about mobsters who live a selfish pagan lifestyle where each person takes whatever they can for themselves, by whatever means are necessary, but the female protagonist finds the love of a mother in her heart and lays her life down to save a 12-year-boy, a victim of mob violence;

Foul Language:

About 36 obscenities (including three “f” words) and six strong profanities, plus protagonist rebukes foul language when she tells 12-year-old to “watch his mouth” four times;

Violence:

Very strong action violence, scenes of shoot outs, at least three people shot dead at point blank range, one torture scene where the mobsters have a hostage tied to chair with a plastic bag over his head while they torture him, dialogue reveals they have been torturing him for two hours as they simultaneously discuss a birthday party for the mother of the mob family later that day, the boy’s back shows scars from abuse, boy is hit hard on the head, gushing bullet wounds etc., some gratuitous violence as the heroin shoots a few people several times at point blank range, even though they’re already dead,

Sex:

No sex, but man makes an unwanted advance at female protagonist;

Nudity:

Shower scene silhouette of a naked lady behind frosted glass, not in a sexual situation, nothing explicit

Alcohol Use:

Heroine guzzles hard liquor as she pulls a bullet out of her side;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Dialogue reveals boy’s mom abandoned him and his father was murdered for being a bookie with a $100,000 debt, dysfunctional families, protagonist keeps the truth of killing father from 12-year-old boy but tells him the truth in the end, and boy is shown using guns and playing with guns.

More Detail:

PROUD MARY is a movie about a hit woman from a Boston organized crime family, Mary, who discovers her maternal side when she crosses paths with a boy named Danny after a hit goes wrong. Unwilling to shoot Danny, the 12-year-old, Mary follows him after she killed his father and left him an orphan. When Danny is left for dead by an abusive mob boss, Mary rescues and shelters him.

Mary discovers that Danny has been severely abused by the rival mob boss and visits the enemy mobsters to try to negotiate Danny’s freedom. Unable to make a deal, Mary acts out irrationally in “mama bear” style that ignites a bloody war between the two biggest crime families in Boston, who until now had a truce. This leads to many shootouts with revenge the aim. In fear for her life, Mary hides the fact that she’s the one who killed the rival mobsters without the “go ahead” from her mob family. She pins the murder on someone else named Walter, who she remorselessly kills in cold blood.

The movie reveals Mary doesn’t actually belong to the crime family. A runaway who was abused as a child, Mary was taken off the street by Benny, her mob boss, and trained to kill from the time she was a teenager. Complicating matters more, Mary has a long-term love affair with Benny’s son, Tom, which she recently ended. Tom wants her back. Mary finds the love of a mother inside herself, and it takes her in a whole new direction in life.

Mary cares for Danny and realizes how much he needs her. She’s clearly unhappy with her life as an assassin. Mary doesn’t want Danny to grow up trapped in a life of crime like she was. Though Mary’s sudden “attack of conscience” of being a killer is inconsistent because Mary’s actions remain extremely violent throughout the movie, she becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the crime family’s tactics and wants a better life for her and Danny.

The maternal love that Mary feels for Danny gives her the strength to ask to leave the mob family. However, both Benny and his son, Tom, inform Mary that she can never leave the crime family. Benny berates Mary and tells her she’s his slave and would be nothing more than a drug addicted prostitute without him.

However, Mary is determined to save Danny and herself. She can only do this by going to war with the only family she has ever known, along with the entire mob organization. Cue to more shootouts!

Those who loved Taraji Henson as “Detective Carter” in PERSON OF INTEREST will not be disappointed with her role as Mary. She plays hardboiled heroines with a soft heart very well. PROUD MARY is unique in that it combines an adrenaline pumping mob story with a touching drama. It also inserts a heartwarming lesson about the power of maternal love. However, the story falls short because it goes in too many directions. Also, the worldview is rather mixed. For example, even though Mary’s actions remain extremely violent throughout the movie, including assassinating several people, Mary risks her life several times in order to protect Danny, which reflects the great Christian principle of laying down your life for others. Despite this, the movie contains lots of criminal behavior, violence and strong foul language. So, PROUD MARY is excessive.

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What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.