The Mother
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Movie Reviews of The Mother
Movie Review: These character's has dimension and portrays great emotion through out this film.
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Mother" is a provocative look at a scarcely filmed reality - a woman who isn't ready to stay home, watch "the telly," and vegetates after her husband of nearly three decades, and a controlling, dominating chap at that, packs it in with a massive heart attack.
May (Anne Reid) is strong in her resolve to both acknowledge her sexuality and expect, indeed demand, a future of happiness. But she is also inescapably vulnerable. She's fishing in uncharted emotional waters. Who controls her relationship with Darren and why are difficult issues for her to understand, much less resolve. In her sixties, she's still a work in progress.
"Something's Gotta Give" showcased mature sexuality but in an amusingly antiseptic way assuring no viewer would be discomfited. After all it's Jack Nicholson and the always beautiful Diane Keaton cavorting in the world of the rich. And to insure that no serious psycho-social issues were explored, Keaton's young girlfriend, Amanda Peet, daughter of Keaton, not only blesses the match but insures that the audience knows she and her old (er) would-be lover never hopped into the sack.
Not on this film. People probably gasped when May writhed passionately in bed with her younger hunk lover, Darren (Daniel Craig) or later saw sexually explicit drawings by May when this first came out on theaters. I doubt the audience was aghast at the nudity or the drawings' content as much as feeling uneasy at seeing a woman in her 60s rapturously enjoying sex. It's to be inspected that Anne Reid's inspired performance forces discomfort on some while drawing respect from others. I truly ejoyed this film last night and will never forget it.
Kudos to director Roger Michell for tackling a fascinating story with verve and empathy.
Movie Review: Old Girl Gone Wild
Summary: 4 Stars
Ah, yes: The frailty of the human condition. One moment a domiciled, husband-doting grandmother; the next, a moaning lover coupling with a man half her age. Director Roger Michell reminds us we're all capable of behaving outside the box with his moody film, THE MOTHER.
Sixtysomething May (Anne Reid), recently widowed, decides to move to London to be closer to her two adult children. While getting closer to the kiddos--learning more about them, and herself--she finds herself physically attracted to a married carpenter (Daniel Craig, the new James Bond dude) who is her son's friend and who is also having an affair with her daughter (can a plot get any more tangled than that?). May throws caution to the wind and has an affair with the young man--an affair that definitely tweaks the "ick" factor, and subsequently turns her already fragile family upside down.
Reid plays her role robotically, unemotionally, while Craig's character is less than flattering. As a matter of fact, there isn't a flattering--or likeable--character in the entire film, yet the viewer is drawn into this dysfunctional mess just like a crowd rushing to a train wreck. THE MOTHER does indeed pay homage to the human condition, subtly pointing out its frailty at the same time.
--D. Mikels, Author, THE RECKONING
Movie Review: The Mother
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good alternative to the bombard of Hollywood films. It potrays beutifully and naturally the meaning of love and the loneliness of the elderly. I live in one of the Asian countries where the famili members still have strong emotional bound to one another. Watching this film, I came to realize how lonely one's life can be when one grows old in the so called modern countries. Because things are so modernized, things have got so mechanical, human relation is no exception. This happens to the mother in this film. It is so touchy to see when the mother and the father come to visit her son's family, everybody is so busy with his/her business, everybody is in a rush and in the end the two of them have to stay in a quiet house with nobody around. Their visit is not strong enough to hold people from minding his/her business.
Her being attracted to the young carpenter is a sign that she actually needs attention and that she is lonely rather than the raw 'love' between a man and a woman.
I recommend this film to those who love to watch a film about love, family and relationship.
Movie Review: Superb Acting
Summary: 4 Stars
There is something about British films that make you forget you are actually watching a movie. The acting in this film is near perfect; it makes you realize just how mediocre the genre is in America.
To see an older woman paired with a younger male is shocking only because we never see it. Put Jack Nicholson or Sean Connery in a similar scenario and there is no such surprise, as if men can move into the second stage of life without any thought to their own fading beauty or virility. It speaks to the social alienation that is forced upon women when they become middle-aged and the lack of respect shown by children who are too busy to notice just how lonely and lost their parents have become.
The dialogue is authentic, the emotions are perfectly conveyed, and it is difficult to know which character is most sympathetic. The mother character is complex, subtle, and at times ambiguous. Her children are flawed in their own ways and the lover is at once admirable and pitiful. I highly recommend this film.
Movie Review: Very Well Wriiten Film
Summary: 4 Stars
As a fan of Daniel Craig, I bought this film based on his body of work (thanks IMDB). I vaguely remembered critics buzzing about this movie, especially around award season a few years ago.
Overall the performances among the three main characters were well done; made me uncomfortable a few times, but that is the nature of the story. Watching an older woman 'get in touch with her sexuality' would be difficult to direct, but Roger Michell made it seem natural.