LILA AND EVE – 2015 FILM STILL – Pictured: Viola Davis as Lila and Jennifer Lopez as Eve – Photo Credit: Bob Mahoney / Samuel Goldwyn Film

The great Viola Davis struggles to bring the gravitas of grief to “Lila & Eve,” a thriller about a mother in search of the people who killed her teen son in a random drive-by.
But when grief gives way to rage and revenge, this promising character piece turns into a real head-slapper. That transformation coincides with the arrival of Jennifer Lopez, playing a fellow mother who has lost her child to violence.
Lila & Eve meet at the Mothers of Young Angels support group. Eve lost a little girl. Lila, her beloved, college-bound son, Stephon (Aml Ameen). Lila confesses to Eve that, as deep in mourning as she is, she wants to know who killed her boy. Why aren’t the cops putting some effort into the case?
“We think about it all the time,” Eva says. “But nobody else does.”
With just a sliver of information from the detective assigned the case (Shea Whigham of “Boardwalk Empire”), Lila, egged on by Eve, sets out to get some answers. She doesn’t know why her boy had a .38 revolver in his backpack, or why he was on that notorious street corner. Maybe she doesn’t want to know. But Eve, given custody of the pistol, isn’t shy about waving it around to the first link in the chain that they run across. She shoots the guy, too. And there, “Lila & Eve” goes right off the rails.
As these two intrepid mothers shoot gangsters and steal their phones (leading them up the food chain), remorse never really sets in. Lila makes mention of the fact that they’re just making more grieving moms, but Eve isn’t hearing it.
Late night stakeouts, a happy, selfie-snapping trip out night clubbing (That Lopez lady can dance!), all lead them down the road to their destiny.
The script plays like a movie that was financed based on spoiler alerts, which either aren’t that surprising or feel like contrived cheats, in this case.
Director Charles Stone III, whose peak moment may have been the cute black marching band comedy “Drumline,” works the many flashbacks with Lila remembering her talks with her son in with a deft touch. But the action beats are jarring and the violence seemingly without consequence.
And Davis has her performance chopped down to something lacking the subtlety she’s known for. This character loses her believability at about the time she loses her humanity. We can root for her all we want, but that doesn’t mean we believe the turn of events that transforms a nurturing Atlanta mom into a cold blooded huntress.

MPAA Rating: R for violence and language

Cast: Viola Davis, Jennifer Lopez, Shea Whigham, Aml Ameen, Andre Royo
Credits: Directed by Charles Stone III, script by Pat Gilfillan. A Samuel Goldwyn release.

Running time: 1:33