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Mother and Child
(2010)
Directed by
Rodrigo Garcia
Review by
Zach Saltz
Posted - 7/11/10
There are scenes in
Mother and Child that
are as good as any movie – it’s just that most of them take place in the
film’s first half, where the writing is more taut and economical, the
cynicism has more of a bite, and the characters are more full-fledged.
When the screenplay takes a turn for the melodramatic and maternal-happy
in the second half, Rodrigo Garcia’s film turns into a kind of reverse
shot of Thomas Balme’s Babies: “Yes, new mommies are cute and
cuddly and are at their happiest when they’re feeding! HAVE BABIES
NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!!”
It’s not surprising then that I would have
appreciated Mother and Child more had it included a disclaimer at
the beginning that said: “Warning: If you are taking your girlfriend to
this movie, and there is even a remote chance that she wants children in
the next one to 30 years, abort mission at all costs. See
The
Last Airbender instead.”
Using Garcia’s favorite narrative framing device,
the Interlocking Story (as used in the director’s previous
Things You
Can Tell By Just Looking At Her and
Nine Lives),
Mother
and Child weaves a complex narrative with three main characters
whose connections don’t make sense until the very last scene. The
first character is Karen (Annette Bening), a 51-year-old nurse who gave
birth at 14 only to give her baby up for adoption. She has not
seen it since, but writes diary entries to it that are laughably prosaic
(“Was someone there to help you with your first period? You must
have been confused.”) Karen is angry at the world – that she
didn’t get to raise her kid, that her mom’s in a wheelchair, and that
she hasn’t been boinked since the Stone Age (sorry if I’m making her
sound like Henry Hill’s dad in GoodFellas). Then she meets
an almost unrecognizably overweight Jimmy Smits (token Good Man) who
informs her that, yes, believe it or not there are ways of finding her
long-lost daughter if she wants. Suddenly, Karen fixes her hair,
slaps on some makeup, and chooses to be shot by the camera using warmer
tones. This is the movie’s first lesson: The only thing better
than finding a Good Man and getting a makeover is finding your long-lost
baby.
(Lesson 1.5: Don’t become a fatass like Jimmy
Smits.)
The movie’s second lead is Kerry Washington as
Lucy, who wants to adopt a baby so bad that she’s willing to put up with
a nightmarish biological mother (Shareeka Epps) who’s a cross between
Ellen Page in Juno
and the sadomasochism of Ellen Page in
Hard
Candy. To call her demanding would be putting it lightly.
But Washington puts up with it, which is good, because without the sass
of the biological mother in Lucy’s part of the story, there’s pretty
much nothing else interesting here, save a lame colorful mother and a
pussy husband who ends up leaving her. Hell, it feels like Garcia
even forgets about poor Lucy at times, as long stretches of the film
seem to go by without any updates on the crises in her life.
Lesson number two: Being infertile sucks, giving up your baby really
sucks, but there’s nothing worse having nothing interesting in your
life.
(Lesson 2.5: Apparently it’s a seller’s market for
the biological mother. Who knew that being a knocked-up black teen
girl in Los Angeles gives you so much privilege in who gets your baby?
We’re even told that Ray has “already turned down several couples.”
Who is this baby’s father, 50 Cent?)
Of all these characters, Naomi Watts’ is the most
intriguing (this may be related to the fact that that Watt’s is still
smouldering hot for an icy 37-year-old). As Bening’s long-lost
lawyer daughter, Elizabeth, she inherits mom’s traits of being a bitch
to everyone and sleeping with older dudes from
Star Wars (this
time, it’s Samuel L. Jackson). She’s not a ho for office
advancement; indeed, when Mace Windu offers her a promotion in the firm,
she turns out down, saying that she needs to “earn it first.” So
what’s her problem? Why is she sleeping around? Why can’t
she settle down with a Good Man like angry Karen? At this point,
my money was on daddy issues (with the over/under on painful flashbacks
set firmly at 2½) but since adoptive dad died at 10, it wasn’t likely
that Mother and Child
was going to turn into
Bastard Out of
Carolina any time soon. Turns out, Watts’ problems (if you
want to call Watts derobing in front of the camera a “problem”) are all
solved once she finds out she’s pregnant. This brings us to lesson
number three: Don’t think that being a successful single lawyer in your
thirties will alleviate your dreams of motherhood. Have you
forgotten the dancing babies on Ally McBeal?
(Lesson 3.5: I didn’t know that having your tubes
tied wasn’t the end all, be all. This needs to be used as a
shocking dramatic device in more chick flicks. Like, “I thought
you said your tubes were tied!” “It’s not 100%! It’s your baby,
Tiger.”)
As I said earlier, there are some very good scenes
in Mother and Child. Watts telling her life story to
Jackson (saying she doesn’t get along well with women) is great.
Bening throwing tomatoes at her Good Fat Man is hilarious. Even
when Washington shows up every 25 minutes or so, it’s nice to see her
again. But when the movie flashes forward a year – when Watts
finds herself a pregnant temp, Bening is newly married, and Washington
is still not onscreen – the movie turns into Girl Night fodder. I
half expected to see Sandra Bullock show up. And yet for a movie
that is eager to movie along to its hackneyed conclusion, there are
noticeable lags in the story which Garcia clumsily tries to amend by
inserting mini-crises (Mexican Maid is moving to Texas! Mace will
raise his baby alongside the rest of the Jedi clan! Let’s watch
Jimmy Smits eat!)
The other major problem with
Mother and Child:
Too many characters. This is a chronic problem with Garcia, whose
casts tend to have more personnel than the lineup for the ‘87 Redskins.
I would have gotten rid of at least five characters here (including
Sympathetic Nun, Mexican Maid, Jesus Freak Grown Daughter, and
Sharp-Tongued Blind Girl, following her resurrection from the
Airport
movies.) You get the sense that whenever Garcia feels like a
supporting character is running out of gas, he’s overeager to give up on
them and insert a brand new shiny character. He’s like pre-1995
Steinbrenner with Yankee managers.
Still, for an unabashed, 100% certified,
proud-to-be-shown-on-Oxygen, capital-C
chick flick,
Mother and Child
is not
completely without merit. Just bring hankees, a shirt that won’t
stain, some donuts for
Jimmy Smits,
and at all costs, don’t let your girlfriend trick you into having
unprotected sex afterward, especially if her tubes are tied.
Rating:
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