It figures that there are other movies called Hot Pursuit (2015).  I have no idea what the others are like.  The only reason I know about this 2015 version is because I kept passing it while scrolling through Amazon Prime.  Still, one can only resist a film that is a little over eighty minutes for so long.  When movies are that short, it is usually because they do not have much to say.  I want to be a better Catholic here and say nice things about it, but its brevity is about all I have.  I choose it because it has Reese Witherspoon in it, and I enjoy her work.  It was also kind of refreshing to see her in something a little different than her usual romantic comedy fare.  There, I did something a little more Christian.  Please forgive me for the rest of this review.

Officer Rose Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) has little to ask for forgiveness at the beginning of Hot Pursuit.  She is raised by her legendary cop father, who teaches her everything about the trade as she rides along with him in the backseat of his patrol car through the streets of San Antonio, Texas.  With such an upbringing, it is only natural that she also enters the field of law enforcement.  Her time on the force, though, is marked by the pressure of living up to her dad’s status.  She has an encyclopedic knowledge of all the rules and regulations of the law, but her hyperactive personality leads to her mishearing the mayor’s son’s desire to ride in the front seat as having an actual shotgun.  The result of this mistake is for the young man to be tased and burst into flames.  He is fine, but the incident relegates her to the evidence room.  Because of her banishment, she is excited for the opportunity provided by her boss, Captain Emmett (John Carroll Lynch), to get back into the field.  The assignment is to escort Daniella Riva (Sofia Vergara), wife of Felipe Riva (Vincent Laresca).  The guard is needed because Felipe is a high-up lieutenant in the criminal organization run by Vicente Cortez (Joaquín Cosío), an infamous drug lord.  In exchange for immunity, Daniella and Felipe will speak under oath to the terrible things done by Vicente.  There is a need for secrecy, however, with the only people knowing about the operation to take the Rivas to federal court in Dallas being Officer Cooper, Captain Emmett, and United States (US) Marshall Jackson (Richard T. Jones).  Officer Cooper and Marshall Jackson will be doing the transporting, and they head to the stately Rivas’ home.  Marshall Jackson remains downstairs to keep watch on Felipe, while Officer Cooper goes upstairs to try to convince Daniella to hurry and not bring her entire wardrobe.  As the women argue, downstairs armed men break into the house and start shooting.  In the process, Felipe and Marshall Jackson are killed.  Officer Cooper finds Daniella hiding in the backseat of a car, and the cop decides the best course of action is for them to flee in the vehicle.  They make it to a gas station where Officer Cooper calls for back-up.  I am not going to bother to explain the ridiculous set of circumstances that leads to them not having a cell phone or radio between them.  Officer Cooper recognizes the pair sent to collect them.  What is less recognizable is their behavior.  It takes a moment for the by-the-book cop to understand that they are in danger, and that the detectives mean them harm, but they are able to escape nonetheless.  Unfortunately, Daniella’s car does not get them much farther, and any hope of fixing it is dashed when a semi T-bones it while they are assessing their next move.  This Catholic does not understand why the wreck had to also be full of cocaine, but this is what is supposed to pass for comedy in this movie.  The person driving the truck agrees to take them to the next gas station, but the televisions inside show that they are wanted fugitives.  This means changing their clothes, though it is apparent that doing so does little to disguise them.  Eventually, they commandeer a pick-up, only to find that its owner, former convict and angle monitor wearing Randy (Robert Kazinsky), is still in the bed.  Before the women shoot him, he explains that he had gone to prison for assaulting a man who had been abusing his sister.  In exchange for his continued freedom, he takes them to a hotel at a casino, but the same dirty cops find them anyway.  This time, they get away on a tour bus, which they must opraye together when the driver jumps out, being scared by the armed men shooting at them.  The reason for their awkward driving technique, by the way, is because Daniella is constantly trying to get away.  It eventually comes out that Vicente had been responsible for killing her brother Colombia, and she wants revenge.  Thus, once they take care of their pursuers, Daniella knocks out Officer Cooper and is picked up by two of her husband’s men.  The plan is for Daniella to murder Vicente, but Officer Cooper is hoping to stop her.  She confides as much to Captain Emmett, who has cleared her of any wrongdoing, but who also orders her to stay home.  Instead, she goes to the quinceañera party for Vicente’s daughter to try to convince Daniella to bring the crime boss to justice.  It does not work, and Officer Cooper ends up taking a bullet for Daniella, and shooting Vicente dead.  After all this, Daniella is forced to spend a few months in prison, but her ride once she is out is Officer Cooper and her new boyfriend, Randy.

Is it worth mentioning that at the end of Hot Pursuit, Officer Cooper returns Daniella’s shoes worth millions of dollars?  It certainly was not in the context of the synopsis.  I bring the incident up here because it is so out of character for Officer Cooper.  Her whole life as about following the rules.  Further, her method for calming herself down is to recite 10-codes to herself.  I would love to say Daniella does it better because there is a scene in which she crosses herself and prays, but I would not label her as a faithful person.  Instead, these outwardly Catholic gestures are what they usually are in Hollywood: cultural stereotypes.  Speaking of stereotypes, there is one that says that devout Christians, especially Catholics, as dogmatic rule followers.  The idea is that such people care more about the guidelines than being what others would call normal.  The type of people, in other words, who would repeat 10-codes as a calming device.  The film is clearly on the side of the debate that would suggest that being this way is not the thing to do.  The closing minutes where Officer Cooper gives back the footwear is evidence of this, as is them speeding down the road with Randy in the backseat.  What Hollywood and most of the rest of the broader culture seem to forget is that those rules are not meant to be mindlessly followed.  God does not want us to blindly worship Him.  He desires a heart that is capable of a full relationship.  A person who behaves like Officer Cooper is more apt to have their worldview shaken in a pivotal moment.  This almost happens when she sees Captain Emmett at Vicente’s party.  In other words, she is depicted as having a blind devotion to her work.  Faith is to encompass all human experiences, good or bad.  God wants to enter our lives where we are at, no matter our level of belief, in order to raise us up to His level.  In the absence of glowing beams of light from on high, or the second coming, we have guidelines that can help us get to where we need to go.  As such, I would argue that it is Officer Cooper’s adherence to the rules, for the most part, that serves her best.

Discussing Officer Cooper in Hot Pursuit in such a way is more philosophical than what the film deserves.  Then again, it is my self-appointed job to look for such things wherever I can find them.  Besides, God is in everything, or what are we doing?