During a massive storm Hannah's abusive and presumed dead ex Phillip (Logan-Marshall-Green) kidnaps their daughter Vee and Hannah enlists Lou's help in tracking the two down leading to Lou tapping into her dormant skillset and long buried wounds that made her who she is.
During a tense scene, Lou eventually reveals her real identity to Hannah: she's the mother of Hannah's abusive ex-husband Philip (Logan Marshall-Green), who has now kidnapped Vee.
The wanted mother and son have a final showdown on the beach where Philip is seen stabbing Lou before the pair come together for a tight final hug, with Lou apologising to Philip. A CIA helicopter then appears to shoot them both. The film's final scene shows Hannah and Vee on a ferry, leaving Orcas Island for Seattle.
As the titular character in Lou, Allison Janney plays a hermit who must do what she can to save the life of a kidnapped young girl. Pursuing the kidnapper with experience and skill, every move she makes could possibly unmask Lou for the person she really is.
Lou must manage the unkind behavior of the schoolyard bully J.J., who has not yet learned that giving can be so much more fulfilling than taking away. “Bullies are usually just acting out because they're awkward or young and don't have their moral compass set.
Lou's big secret was that Phil was Lou's son -- someone she used her CIA contacts to get black-listed and arrested after he went off the rails in Central America. He was abusive to Hannah, so Lou had to get the monster put away.
After finding her injured much later in the film, Rankin places the copper bracelet on Lou's wrist. His wholesome gesture goes a long way as Lou later uses the same bracelet to make an antenna and manipulate the frequency of the bomb that Philip plants at the lighthouse.
The biggest twist in Lou's ending is that Philip is actually Lou's son. Lou was aware throughout the entire hunt for Vee that she had been abducted by her own son whom she knew was Hannah's ex-husband, but this was not revealed until the film's ending.
Ruben insists he doesn't need help and doesn't want to stay, but Lou and Joe think he needs help. Joe says if he stays he he has to commit to the program and will have no contact with the outside world, including Lou. Ruben refuses and leaves.
Hannah informs Lou that the hitchhiker is Vee's father, Philip (Logan Marshall-Green), a special forces soldier and criminal she thought was dead. Lou finds and kills Philip's friends Tony (Daniel Bernhardt) & Gerry (RJ Fetherstonhaugh) on the way, clearly showing she is more than she appears to be.
Although set on Orcas Island (the largest of Washington State's San Juan islands), the movie was actually filmed in and around Ucluelet, on the south coast of Vancouver Island (Canada).
At first taking up a knife to defend herself, the taunts of the group cause Lou to have a breakdown, and she ends up punching herself in the stomach and slashing herself with the knife on her face and arm as the group encourages her to kill herself, before being comforted by Eva.
Directed by Ann Foerster from a screenplay co-written by Maggie Cohn and Jack Stanley, “Lou” stars Janney as a reclusive landowner in a small Pacific Northwest coastal community in the late 1980s.
The film is about a lost-and-found box and the unseen monster within. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards.
So, what happens at the end of Lou? Before the film reaches its climax, we learn Lou's biggest secret: she's not merely a stranger to Hannah and her daughter Vee (Ridley Bateman). In fact, she's a former CIA agent with a familial connection to the pair.
The story drags a little in the middle and the script is riddled with genre cliches, but Janney elevates some pretty weak material and the finale is well worth the wait. Overall, LOU is nothing original or to go out of your way to watch, but it's a decent little action flick.
This short animated film tells the story of a playground bully in a school, who snatches toys away from other children. A mysterious being teaches him a lesson on how to behave appropriately with his peers in school.
Parents need to know that Lou is a graphically violent and suspenseful thriller about two women attempting to rescue a child who has been kidnapped by her deranged father.
