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Anne Foerster’s Lou premiered on Netflix on Friday, September 23, 2022. The action thriller follows the story of a suspicious character, Lou, who sets out to help her neighbor Hannah when her daughter, Vee, is kidnapped by her father.
Vee was kidnapped by her father, Philip, on a stormy night. He leaves a photograph of them with the cryptic words on the other side: “Hi Mom. My Turn.”
Allison Janney plays the titular role of the brisk old woman who stays with her dog, while Hannah, Philip, and Vee are played by Jurnee Smollett, Logan Marshall-Green, and Ridley Bateman, respectively.
The film begins with thunder-rumbling as the sun peeks out of the clouds. Lou walks into the woods and digs out a box containing photos of herself from the early days, among other things. She counts stacks of cash, burns a few documents, cleans a gun, and places the barrel below her chin.
Lou starts with the protagonist attempting suicide. The title card is followed by the sound of a gunshot, which jumps to a scene where the protagonist shoots a deer. The scene then jumps back to how her day had started. She went into town and withdrew a large amount of cash from the bank as she rolled her eyes at the U.S. President, denying American involvement in the 1953 coup in Iran.
She seemed to have lived near the town for quite some time, since everybody knew her. She returned home and, on her way, reminded Hannah to pay the rent for her trailer.
A storm is announced the same day. After Lou sorts her business, she keeps an eye on Hannah, who is visited by Chris. The two have something brewing between them, however, Chris is killed by Philip before Chris' relationship with Hannah flourishes.
Philip kidnapps Hannah’s daughter Vee in the middle of the storm
The same night, as Hannah puts Vee to bed, the power goes off. While she's busy checking the power connection, Philip kidnapps Vee from her room using halothane, or sleeping gas, on her, as disclosed by Lou a little later.
Hannah realizes that Philip is behind her missing daughter when she sees a photograph of Philip and Vee. Hannah rushes to Lou’s house for a phone call.
Lou, who was in the middle of pulling the trigger on herself, decided to help Hannah. The women got in the car but it failed to start, leading Lou to realize that Philip had attached a bomb to it. They safely get out of the car before it blows up.
Lou and Hannah then grabbed essentials and decided to track down Philip. Lou also dissected Philip’s motives, and concluded that he was taking Vee to Eagle Bay, probably to escape with her.
During their journey through the muddy forest, the titular protagonist revealed that she is a former CIA agent after Hannah witnessed her fight two guys like a pro and pack essentials that only seasoned wanderers do.
Hannah also divulged her history with Philip. She said that he was in the U.S. military and was known for his ruthless methods of torturing hostages.
The two women reached Eagle Bay, but found no sign of Philip or Vee, until Lou spotted smoke coming from a fire that was started by Philip nearby. Lou asked Hannah to seek help from Sheriff Rankin with the excuse that she wanted to rest.
Once Hannah left, Lou took her gun and landed at the spot where Philip had camped with Vee. The confrontation revealed that she and Philip were mother and son, and the latter was born in Iran, where Lou had been sent on an undercover mission.
A later conversation with Hannah further revealed that Philip was the son of “dangerous” man in Tehran that Lou had to get close to for her mission. She said that she kept the baby to maintain her cover.
This also seemed to be the reason for Philip’s frustration, who questioned his mother, “Why’d you sell me out?” Philip was tormented by the past where he was taken away by undisclosed men in Iran, and claimed that his mother did not come to rescue him.
Even though Philip was extracted from the situation and returned to the U.S., his mother did not return with him. Now, he wants to inflict the same pain on both Lou and Hannah. After a fight ensued between the mother and son, Philip overpowered his mother and asked her to bring Hannah to the lighthouse.
Meanwhile, Hannah got in touch with Rankin and asked him to get help. Rankin was contacted by the CIA and was informed that both Philip and Lou were CIA targets.
When Hannah returned, she found an injured Lou. The latter divulged Philip’s history and an enraged Hannah left her to save her daughter on her own. She was angry because not only did she have to bear the brunt of an absent mother in Philip’s life, but was also disappointed that Lou never even looked at Vee, her granddaughter.
What happened after the CIA shot at Lou and Philip?
Hannah reached the lighthouse and found Vee and Philip stationed at the top. She reached the top of the tower and signaled to her daughter to leave the scene. After Vee left, Hannah attacked Philip with the gun that Lou gave her.
Despite being injured, Philip was able to bring Hannah to the ground, until the latter stabbed his hand and fixed the penetrated knife into a crevice in the wall.
Meanwhile, Rankin located Lou and helped her out. When asked why the CIA was after her, she said that she had used documents that proved American involvement in Iran’s 1953 coup to blackmail the agency into investigating Philip and his crimes in El Ecuador.
She later said that she did it to protect Hannah and Vee from Philip.
After incapacitating Philip, Hannah limped back downstairs to find Vee, who was hiding in the lighthouse’s basement. Lou arrived a little later, and both noticed a setup which indicated that Philip planned on blasting the tower with all four of them inside it. That was his plan throughout.
He did not have a proper childhood, he wanted to repeat the history of when he was taken away from his mother in Iran, and held captive in a similar lighthouse.
But his plans were thwarted after the protagonist not only diffused the bomb, but also escaped the building with Hannah and Vee. The next scene came with another confrontation between the mother and the son after Hannah and Vee were returned to safety.
After landing punches and drowning the other, they hugged as Philip cried in his mother’s arms. The CIA arrived in a helicopter and shot at Philip, who was unaware that the agency knew their location. As the helicopter approached, Lou whispered in her son’s ear, “I am sorry, kid.” Philip was shot, and they both went down.
After the attack by the CIA, what looked like Lou’s hair and Philip’s body underwater was highlighted. It is to be noted that Lou wore something like a bullet-proof jacket even though it remained concealed by Philip’s body.
The scene jumped to Rankin arriving at Hannah’s place, where she was being questioned by the CIA for the umpteenth time about Lou and why she left the house and money to Hannah and Vee.
Hannah did not disclose anything. She was surrounded by packed boxes, as Rankin noted that the mother and daughter were set to relocate to Seattle. Rankin also appreciated Hannah for throwing Lou a beautiful memorial service.
Hannah and Vee are on the launcher. They took Jax with them. However, as the mother-daughter duo remained busy overlooking the water, Jax went to a familiar face. While the face was not revealed, the scene ended with a woman watching Hannah and Vee through binoculars.
Lou is currently streaming on Netflix.
