20260524-20151211-0-50123135
Cast & Crew
Critic's Rating: 2.5
Story: The feisty Everly (Hayek) is an escort who works for a gangster named Taiko (Watanabe). Taiko finds out she has betrayed him (by working with the cops to bring him down) and wants revenge. She then finds herself trapped in an apartment where she has to battle wave after wave of Taiko’s goons.

Review: Salma Hayek in her barest essentials, oozing tough-girl sexuality? Check. Salma Hayek in the skimpiest of clothes and with all guns blazing while mowing down bad guys by the truckload? Yes indeed.

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If you’re a diehard Salma Hayek fan and want to see her in a role she’s probably never done before, you’ll get that here too. But while the blood, gore and body count (not to mention some typical action movie style one-liners) goes through the roof here, the action fest does get a bit repetitive and monotonous after a point. This is also largely due to the fact that most of the fighting takes place in an apartment. Whether intentional or not on the part of the filmmaker, this closed-structure shooting adds to a sense of claustrophobia that is slightly reminiscent of 2002’s Panic Room that also played out mostly indoors.

Apart from trying to break away from her captors, Everly is also worried about her family (mother and daughter). But there’s a stream of creatively-named villains (eg, The Sadist and The Masochist), who are out to get her, courtesy a cruel game being played on her by Taiko.

It’s almost impossible not to see Tarantino and Sam Peckinpah-style influences creeping in here. The action puts the ‘G’ in gratuitous. Also unexplained is how Everly becomes a commando-grade expert in the use of guns and cutting weapons, seemingly all of a sudden. Her transformation from victim to vixen is rocket-fuelled.

On the plus side, the action scenes are slick and stylish. But as mentioned earlier, too much of it does weigh a bit heavily on you. But all said and done, this is Salma Hayek channeling her inner GI Jane. It could have been way more ambitions though.
Summary / Analysis

Spoiler alert! Please do not read the following plot summary if you have not seen the film.
Everly (Salma Hayek), a prostitute working for the brutal criminal overlord Taiko (Hiroyuki Watanabe), is being attacked in her apartment by Taiko's enforcers after he discovers that she has been working with the police to bring down his organization.

However, though Taiko expected his men to kill her easily after torturing her, Everly retrieves a gun she had hidden and manages to kill all of her attackers. Taiko then begins a sadistic game of toying with Everly, dispatching numerous hired killers and offering the other prostitutes in the building (which he presumably owns) a bounty if they manage to kill her. Meanwhile, Everly attempts to contact her mother Edith (Laura Cepeda) and young daughter Maisey (Aisha Ayamah) to save them from other henchmen of Taiko and get them out of the situation alive.

Everly is caught by The Sadist (Togo Igawa) and some of Taiko's henchmen and tied up in a room. During Everly's torture, Edith bursts in with a gun and kills 2 of The Sadist's torturers, but is subdued by The Sadist while he performs the same torture as he did with Everly on her. Everly desperately struggles to escape and help her mother. She breaks one of the ropes that The Sadist had loosened before and uses her free hand to kill one of the assailants with a hidden gun. When The Sadist realizes she has a hidden gun, she shoots him twice in the lung. The last torturer runs toward Everly with a weapon, only to die when she shoots him in the chest and neck. She escapes her remaining restraints and goes to help Edith. The Sadist stands up (being still alive) and knocks Everly down, and is about to kill Edith when Everly forces a poisonous liquid down his throat, melting his intestines out of his stomach which kills him.

As the film progresses, it is revealed that Everly was a prisoner in the plush apartment after having been kidnapped by Taiko four years earlier and forced into prostitution. She has had no contact with Edith or Maisey during that time, and they are confused and angry at the deadly situation they are suddenly thrust into. As Everly fights off the numerous attacks, the foes become more outlandish; originally they are simply armed thugs, but eventually they appear in costumes and with themed groups for extravagant tortures.

Eventually, Edith is killed by a sniper hired by Taiko from the building across from the apartment. Everly is finally subdued, but manages to kill Taiko after his soldiers have left. Afterwards, Everly reconciles with Maisey, who was under the protection of one of Everly's neighbors, who was eventually killed. The film closes with Everly seemingly succumbing to her wounds, but with Maisey still alive and potentially safe with the death of Taiko. However, immediately before the credits, there is audio of a beeping heart-monitor and gasp of breath to indicate that Everly has not died after all.
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Trivia & Goofs

TRIVIA

1. Actress Kate Hudson was initially roped in to play the lead role in the film. But the movie got stuck in development and she chose to drop out. Salma Hayek was later offered the role.

2. The reason director Joe Lynch wanted to shoot in Serbia was because he wanted to shoot somewhere abroad for a few months.

3. The camera never leaves the plush apartment building, according to director Joe Lynch.

4. The film was shot in sequential order due to the chaos that happen in the room.

FAQs
  1. What is the release date of 'Everly'?
    Release date of Salma Hayek and Hiroyuki Watanabe starrer 'Everly' is 2015-12-11.
  2. Who are the actors in 'Everly'?
    'Everly' star cast includes Salma Hayek, Hiroyuki Watanabe and Laura Cepeda.
  3. Who is the director of 'Everly'?
    'Everly' is directed by Joe Lynch.
  4. What is Genre of 'Everly'?
    'Everly' belongs to 'Action, Thriller' genre.
  5. In Which Languages is 'Everly' releasing?
    'Everly' is releasing in Hindi and English.