The Mother
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Movie Reviews of The Mother
Movie Review: Family Drama
Summary: 4 Stars
Not often does a film evoke such memories of true family life. Moments of tenderness are outweighed by tension, secrets and bad behavior. A great commentary on the family experience behind closed doors. Anne Reid and Daniel Craig are fabulous (very bold, daring and erotic). Wonderfully written.Movie Review: Not your typical mother!
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a little different - she's not your typical mother! She's not rich or sexy, etc. - just human. Good film.Movie Review: Mother Please, I'd Rather Do It Myself!
Summary: 3 Stars
The Mother is a brave and unusual movie that only misses greatness because of its torpid pacing; indeed, it is almost slow enough to be Canadian, moving with the mind-numbing sloth of chilled molasses on a slightly inclined piece of plywood.
The greatness of The Mother comes from its willingness to examine an uncomfortable topic seriously, that is, the sexuality of its creaky, newly widowed primary character, May, played with dignity, nuance, and conviction by Anne Reid. May is roughly as attractive as a badly upholstered armchair, which makes the film even braver, it would have been an entirely different effort had it featured a well-preserved diva, like Faye Dunaway for example.
The script for The Mother is by Hanif Kureshi, who demonstrated a willingness to attack hard reality with frightening honesty in the stunning and brilliant saga of forbidden love, My Beautiful Laundrette. While it is axiomatic that everyone must love the flag, apple pie, and especially mom - we may feel sorrow for May but she makes it nearly impossible to like her. That is one of the surprises of The Mother, uniform contemptibility.
In May's two children we find opposite extremes. Her son, Bobby, is a cold-hearted Uber-Yuppie who approaches work the way some people approach crack. Her daughter, Paula, is an emotional train wreck, narcissistic and needy, stumbling from one catastrophe to the next and blaming her problems on others. "The Gardener," in this case the burly guy building a solarium, who is sleeping with mom and daughter, lives in a world of self-destructive indulgence and impulsivity so extreme a five year old would scoff at it. It is tempting to say these people get what they deserve, but nobody deserves damage like this.
Director Roger Michell, known for mainstream fare like Notting Hill and Changing Lanes, gives us an exquisite view of London, some of the interior shots are beautifully composed enough to be paintings. The acting is first class throughout. But The Mother simply never gets off the shoulder; it's like watching a really messy traffic accident when all the cars are in first gear.
Movie Review: Beautifully acted but morally too flawed to be good
Summary: 3 Stars
I won't go over the story again, enough people before me have done this. Suffice it to say that as a grandmother myself, albeit younger than May/Anne Reid, my overriding feeling when watching this movie was a depressing sense of betrayal. Why was this woman so disliked by her children? At first I didn't understand it; after all she was only trying to be nice. But as the film unfolded it became clear that everything was about May, not about anyone else. Her ultimate act of betrayal, to sleep with Darren, hardly dented her feelings of guilt at all. She was happiest when it was going on, and felt no remorse. After Paula had hit her and she went home, she showed no after effects except loneliness that she was on her own again , and set out on holiday the next day with a spring in her step. At no time did she even consider what her daughter might be feeling.
What message does this film bring besides being a self indulgent sexually charged gazing at several navels? That it is OK to betray your children for your own purposes so long as you "need it."
I don't think so.
Ruthie from London
Movie Review: Fine condition, but somewhat expurgated version
Summary: 3 Stars
Arrived in "as new" shape, just as advertised by the seller. No gripes there. But, this version had been stripped of a particularly steamy scene (viewed in a previously rented DVD) which is one of the reasons that I had ordered a copy for myself. There was no indication that the DVD had been edited to remove scene(s).
Other than that, this is a particularly riveting story about family dynamics, including a sexually repressed senior family member who is widowed and who longs for male affection, thus upsetting the rest of the family. I recommend the movie, though I would recommend the full version even more, that is, if you are not easily "squeamed" by overt sexual performance.