Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE MOTHER
Cold, caustic, polite, and understated, The Mother is undeniably British. A succession of brief, but succinct,
vignettes set the matter-of-fact tone and instantly establishes the relationship between a couple in their golden years,
May and Toots. It’s only a matter of time until the sickly Toots is a goner and May (Reid) becomes a widow
with time on her hands. Determined not to live the rest of her life rotting away alone, she moves in with her
daughter Paula (Bradshaw), a single mother, who knows a bargain - a free baby-sitter - when she sees one. Paula,
with her thick, tousled hair, is passive-aggression personified and reverts to being an angry child, (“Let’s forget about
you for second. Let’s talk about me”). Yet the emotionally vacillating Paula pleads with her mother to act as an
intermediary in her relationship with Darren (Craig), a lanky, handsome handy man building the conservatory in her
brother’s posh home. What will eventually cause a wedge in the family is May’s reemerging sexuality - involving
Darren, no less. Refreshingly, the unafraid May makes the first move.
Typically self-effacing, May dismisses her own artistic talents and is
the type of mother who attempts to smooth over hurt feelings or confrontations by offering tea. Her affair with
Darren is the less believable of the film’s relationships and less daring than it may seem. At worse,
the film implies up-for-anything Darren, who will pop or snort any mind-altering drug, needs to
be in his constantly altered state to have sex with a woman nearly twice his age. Although making
Darren Paula’s longtime lover may seem more kitchen sink than necessary, it’s crucial
for Paula’s rivalry with her mother. And even when a plot turn creaks (doesn’t everyone know never to leave your
erotic sketches unattended?), writer Kureishi adds welcome humor to the scene where Paula and her brother discover
their mother’s secret. Throughout, writer Kureishi deftly portrays how easy it is to dismiss those closest to you.
The family’s lack of emotion may be at times be disturbing, but surely is intentional. Set among the materialistic
bourgeois of Cool Britannia, The Mother is as effective as any of Mike Leigh’s diatribes against middle class
shallowness. KT
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