This is not a bad movie. The issue is that it could have been great had it been given a tighter focus.
There are roughly three different A-plots going on here.
1. We have the revenge story, which is the leading story only by the fact that it has the most screen time.
2. The story about Lady's life in prison, which was interesting in it's own right and I would have enjoyed more if it showed us how
3. The story about her daughter, which begins as a teen pregnancy, continues with the child's adoption to an Australian couple, the daughter turning out to be a psychotic little brat who ultimately serves no purpose to the prison story nor the revenge story.
These are all A-plots, not B-plots. Each would make a compelling movie on their own. Yes, they are all tied to the same person, but other than that they are all complete narratives that seem to be battling for supremacy. It would have been good to show a distinct before and after of Lady - showing us her character arc.
As it is we don't see a concrete development from her as a troubled teen to an unstable broken mind. We need to understand her a lot better, but due to the odd time editing and scene placement choices the plot lines don't intertwine all that well.
My suggestion for how this could have been fixed is to either tell the story chronologically (as seen in Amelie, another complicated narrative that flowed surprisingly well), or to make it extremely clear that all these stories are headed in the same direction to one focused goal (as seen in the Kill Bill movies, which also had extended flashbacks all effecting one character but due to the tight focus none of it seemed unnecessary).
There are roughly three different A-plots going on here.
1. We have the revenge story, which is the leading story only by the fact that it has the most screen time.
2. The story about Lady's life in prison, which was interesting in it's own right and I would have enjoyed more if it showed us how
3. The story about her daughter, which begins as a teen pregnancy, continues with the child's adoption to an Australian couple, the daughter turning out to be a psychotic little brat who ultimately serves no purpose to the prison story nor the revenge story.
These are all A-plots, not B-plots. Each would make a compelling movie on their own. Yes, they are all tied to the same person, but other than that they are all complete narratives that seem to be battling for supremacy. It would have been good to show a distinct before and after of Lady - showing us her character arc.
As it is we don't see a concrete development from her as a troubled teen to an unstable broken mind. We need to understand her a lot better, but due to the odd time editing and scene placement choices the plot lines don't intertwine all that well.
My suggestion for how this could have been fixed is to either tell the story chronologically (as seen in Amelie, another complicated narrative that flowed surprisingly well), or to make it extremely clear that all these stories are headed in the same direction to one focused goal (as seen in the Kill Bill movies, which also had extended flashbacks all effecting one character but due to the tight focus none of it seemed unnecessary).