Netflix's Sweet Girl is an action revenge thriller featuring a huge plot twist that breaks the movie. The story follows Ray Cooper (Jason Momoa) and his daughter, Rachel (Isabela Merced), as his wife fights a losing battle with cancer. After being offered a glint of hope in the form of an affordable drug called Spero, the dream fades as pharmaceutical giant, BioPrime, halts the drug's release indefinitely. Following the death of his wife and a dangerous encounter with an unknown assassin that severely wounds him, Cooper drags his reluctant daughter on an action-packed revenge quest to kill those responsible for his suffering.
The twist in the movie comes as Jason Momoa's character finds himself cornered on top of a stadium, where FBI Agent Meeker (Lex Scott Davis) reveals that Cooper died two years ago at the hands of the assassin. It has actually been Rachel, his young daughter who has been carrying out the vendetta believing that she was her father. The trauma of both her parents' deaths caused a mental break leading her to both identify as Ray and launch the vengeful rampage against those who'd wronged her.
The twist is a pivotal moment in the film, but unfortunately it only serves to break the movie. Even with a realistic suspension of belief, it just doesn't make much sense. The twist only cheapens the ending of Sweet Girl by marring the satisfaction of the revenge Jason Momoa's character exacts throughout the movie and ruining the gratification of Rachel's getaway.
The main reason the twist doesn't make sense is the timeline. Shortly before Ray is killed, he tells Rachel to do her homework, implying that she is a minor in school. If her mental break occurred as a result of her parents' deaths, that means anyone responsible for the care of the child during the two years afterwards was somehow oblivious to her disassociation. A scene following her father's death shows Rachel fighting in their gym, so she clearly wasn't a loaner, and the idea that nobody around her who had known her since childhood noticed anything out of the ordinary seems too far-fetched. Furthermore, it's unbelievable that none of the FBI agents mention Ray's death in the scene where they discover his initial threat to Keeley.
The twist also ruins the ending for Sweet Girl's misguided title character. Ray's revenge was reluctant but satisfying for the audience. He only really kills in self-defense, as his victims are morally bankrupt villains who deserve what they get. This holds true for Rachel, but the addition of her psychosis plunges the vindication of their deaths into uncertainty. When the audience is forced to question the protagonist, they're also forced to question her actions, which ultimately detracts from the righteousness of her revenge. The twist also tarnishes the end of the film when Rachel gets away. Throughout the movie, viewers root for Ray and Rachel and hope that they can somehow escape the consequences of their violent actions. After the big reveal, however, the audience questions every small detail about Sweet Girl's main character, so rather than a satisfying getaway, they're faced with a mentally troubled young woman fleeing from any potential help.
This is not to say that the twist wasn't set up well. It's a credit to the film that no character ever acknowledges both Ray and Rachel at the same time, and Ray first reappears after his death as a reflection in a mirror, foreshadowing the true spectral nature of the character. That said, the twist still broke Sweet Girl, and the movie would have been better without it.
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