Grand prix du Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville 2010 (c'est TOUT ?!!!!!)

 

 

 

Mother and Child was the best movie I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival — and I saw 25.

Annette Bening is staggeringly brilliant in her role. She's a prickly and largely unappealing character, but the actress brings such humanity to the performance as a woman whose heart is slowly coming to life. Naomi Watts also brings nuance and humanity to a flawed and complex character. In a world where characters must always be "likeable," these performances feel like revelations.

Direction is consistently sensitive and intelligent. The script deftly moves between three worlds, with intersections that are surprising and never feel forced. If Mother and Child doesn't garner wide distribution (and an Oscar nod for Ms. Bening) then this industry is deeply flawed.

 

*
Obviously orphanhood is a painful condition, as is lifelong separation from one's child. Adoption is a momentous undertaking, potentially beautiful for all concerned but fraught with risks of heartbreak. These are worthy but dangerous subjects for a movie; and despite good intentions and formidable actors, this one goes badly astray, though it's not without powerful moments.

 

'Mother and Child' is one of those manipulative stories about angst-ridden folks in LA whose lives turn out to be intertwined. It's not surprising to find it was produced by Alejandro González Iñárritu, though word from Cannes says his own latest film, 'Biutiful,' is straightforward and linear. Iñárritu himself directed the compellingly gritty and loosely connected multi-strand movie 'Amores Perros,' then veered into pretentious pseudo-complexity with more multiple-layered and polyglot storytelling in '21 Grams' and 'Babel.'

 

The popularity among ambitious filmmakers of this genre can be partly traced to the success of the 2004 Paul Haggis film 'Crash ' (also set in a tormented and multi-ethnic, multi-racial Los Angeles), which won three Oscars, including Best Picture, pushing out the more worthy, but less successfully button-pushing 'Brokeback Mountain.'

 

'Mother and Child' has a fine cast headed by Naomi Watts (who was in '21 Grams', and so is a veteran of orchestrated anomie), Annette Benning, and Samuel L. Jackson, and includes strong performances by Cherry Jones as a kindly nun, Kerry Washington as an eager young women bent on adoption, and Jimmy Smits as one of several implausibly saintly people. These stand by at the right moments, patiently awaiting their opportunity to make everything right again, for the moment when all the chess pieces fall into the right pattern and the game is over.

 

It's hard to describe the movie in detail because its success as suspenseful entertainment hinges on the way its three or four main plots come together. If we knew ahead of time how and why the various narratives were going to mesh the film would seem flat and hopelessly manipulative -- which, in fact, it is, manipulative anyway. It's not so much flat as cloyingly sentimental and at the same time, in certain moments early on, decidedly creepy. What I can tell you is that a better title for the early stages of the movie might be Neurotic Women.

 

One theme is estrangement, another, adoption. Motherhood seems alternatively a pathology, and a condition hopelessly longed for and never achieved. The character played by Annette Benning is cruel, abrupt, almost pathological.So is Naomi Watts,who is also coldly manipulative. Some of the things that Naomi Watts' character does early on seem downright evil. Annette Bennings' character is so hostile and unpredictable it's hard to imagine her holding down a steady job.

 

Plausibility is not the long suit of a screenplay bent on moving its plots and characters in neat patterns These two people played by Benning and Watts, who represent a lonely mother and a lost child, are meant to hold our attention, but in order to justify our respect or interest they have to undergo sudden changes the scenes can't justify.Jackson is an attorney who heads his own very successful law firm. In his first scene he is made to hire Watts, whom he declares impressive. The only trouble is that her record also clearly shows she is unstable, uncommitted, and isolated. The head of a viable firm would think twice before hiring such a person. Then in the days that follow she rapidly seduces him.

 

To analyze the details would not only give away the surprises, but is also embarrassing, because so much is fudged to make the pieces fit together; and besides unconvincing events, there are dropped stitches as time goes on. Things get more obvious and ham-handed when a blind girl appears on the roof of Watts' latest apartment building (she is constantly on the move) for the sole purpose of having Meaningful Conversations. And yet despite all the nonsense, some of the scenes are heartrending, especially one involving Kerry Washington.

 

When Benning turns sweet and lovely, her scenes seem pasted in from another picture. It would have been nice to watch her again in the lightweight, but utterly charming 'Being Julia,' one of her recent triumphs. She is always fine, but she does manic better than depressive. All these fine actors deserved better material. They're good, but they can't make this movie plausible or hide the writer-director's heavy, obtrusive hand.

 

In Los Angeles, the therapist Karen (Annette Bening) is a bitter woman that nurses her terminal mother Nora with the support of her maid Tracy (Carla Gallo) that has a little daughter. Karen misses her unknown daughter that she gave for adoption thirty-seven years ago when she was fourteen years old. Her new colleague Paco (Jimmy Smits), who is a widower, is a gentle man and courts the unpleasant Karen.

The bakery owner Lucy (Kerry Washington) wishes desperately to adopt a child since she can not have a baby but her husband Joseph (David Ramsey) is not supportive to the idea.The efficient lawyer Elizabeth (Naomi Watts), who is Karen's daughter, is an independent and promiscuous woman that does not want to have a baby and has tubal ligation. When she joins the law firm of Paul (Samuel Jackson), she has a love affair with him and becomes his mistress.

When Nora passes away, she feels a great need to know Elizabeth. She marries Paco and his daughter Maria, who is a religious woman, convinces her to seek out Elizabeth. When Lucy meets the single mother Ray (Shareeka Epps), who is a demanding woman, Joseph leaves her since he does not want to raise a foster child. When Elizabeth finds that she is pregnant, she quits her job in Paul's firm and works as secretary in a small company. Their lives will be entwined in very dramatic situations.

"Mother and Child" is a powerful drama about different views and feelings about motherhood. The therapist Karen has never overcome the loss of her daughter for adoption. The infertile baker Lucy wants to be a mother and her desire costs her marriage. The lawyer Elizabeth is traumatized by her childhood and is an independent woman that does not want to have a baby and ironically gets pregnant. In the end, there is redemption with the second chance for Karen. My vote is seven.

 

Diane and I just saw this film in Fremantle and we were both totally absorbed by the strength, truth and integrity of it. The IMDb comments from viewers have noted the extraordinarily rich acting by all the people in this project; it is as if they were working at a higher level because they felt the power of the script and wanted to give the film the very best performance they could muster. It was similar to hearing our local chamber orchestra that seemed, at least to Diane and me, to rise above their normal excellent work and give tremendous support to a recognized Swiss violinist in concert with him.

 

Other commentators have mentioned academy award strength in these performances and I can certainly accede to these opinions.We were impressed by the script which assumed that the audience could follow the pastiche lives of the four women involved in these all too real life situations. We thought that the writer who also directed this beautiful film understood and dealt sympathetically with the jigsaw of their lives as those lives unfolded. Don't read too carefully about the plot; I would suggest that you just take a seat and become absorbed in this tremendously sympathetic view of all that transpires on the screen. It is a gem not to be missed.

 

The subplots are Karen's relationships with co-worker Paco (Jimmy Smits) and housekeeper Sofia (Elpidia Carrillo).The film moves along at just the right pace so that each relationship can accurately develop, and the characters come across as individuals with whom one can truly sympathize. In particular, Karen, through observing Sofia and her daughter, comes to understand the kind of life that she could have had. This is truly one that I recommend.Also starring David Morse, Tatyana Ali, Latanya Richardson and Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks).