Mother and Child

Through the first hour of MOTHER AND CHILD, I had my problems, but for the most part the film was eerily charming despite these problems. The film is about mothers and their children, and yet its so unconventional and manipulative, that its impossible to like. It attempts to be profound, and is profoundly revealing about how bad it is. In the film, everyone is connected through an adoption agency. There is an older women named Karen, who, when she was 14, had a child and left it up for adoption. Karen is a bitch, and Annette Bening plays the part well. (Actually, everyone in this film plays their part well). Karen is cruel and demanding to the point of being demented. But she ends up meeting a kind man her age at work. He's an extremely likeable man, like all of the men in this film. But why would he ever like Karen? As the film progresses in Karen's storyline, she is softened by this man, but her transformation is unbelievable, and the film's gestures are so obvious and inane, that she is ultimately an unbelievable character. Then, there's Elizabeth (the wonderful Naomi Watts). She is Karen's daughter, went through hell in foster homes, and turned out to be an extremely independent, but ultimately cruel and selfish, lawyer. She has an affair with her boss (a kind Samuel L. Jackson) while also screwing her married neighbor. Turns out she's pregnant, and not knowing whether her baby is the boss' or the neighbor's, she flees. At her new home, the film exhibits its stupidity with scenes where a blind girl explains that her mother is always frightened for her safety, but she delivers this speech on the roof of an apartment building. Lastly, there's Lucy (Kerry Washington), who is trying to adopt a boy from a crude mother who wants to get the life-tour of the adopting parents. The routes the film takes from there I will not spoil, but christ are they manipulative. Every character we hate, and then they meet hateful people who do hateful things to them. We're supposed to sympathize, don't, and then film compromises with a death or interconnecting these stories. Arcs are fine in films, but the arcs here are ridiculous. This is a bad film with actors who deserved better for their fine work. There are so many scenes that are so frustrating because of how they were written and directed, that actually, these scenes make up just about the entire film.
Mother and Child: ★★