Pictured (from Top Left): Samuel L. Jackson, Naomi Watts, Shareeka Epps, (Bottom right) Kerry Washington, David Ramsey
Three women. Three daughters. Three mothers. Three lives affected by the complicated process of adoption. Rodrigo Garcia’s “Mother and Child” tells the story of Karen (Annette Bening), a woman in her 50s still burdened by the memory of a daughter she gave up at the age of 14, Elizabeth (Naomi Watts), the now 37-year-old daughter of Karen, struggling to define herself without any knowledge of her heritage, and Lucy (Kerry Washington) an infertile young wife desperate to adopt but unsure if she really wants a child or simply to appease her husband. The women’s lives are obviously connected, but not in the borderline-gimmicky way such a structure is typically treated.
Despite the film’s all-star lead cast, “Mother and Child” is, at its heart, a celebration of the writing and directing of Rodrigo Garcia. Anyone who has seen his work on “In Treatment,” knows that this is a man with a unique ability to make audiences feel not a part of the action, but rather invaders of it. Such a technique is valuable on that series given the intimate subject matter: patients divulging to their therapist. You feel as if you’re watching something you’re not meant to be watching, an intruder. This sensation is gratefully not felt throughout the entirety of “Mother and Child,” but when present, it is extremely effective. For example, an unplanned tryst between two lovers in a hotel room is shot with its subjects so deliberately out of frame, one feels as if it were being viewed through a security camera.
The writing retains a sense of sincere composition while still reading naturally. Garcia builds tension to the point of snapping, only to ease it with a comment both jarringly relieving and deftly human. This is not to say the film is without its flaws, there is a certain dose of character inconsistency that is never too extreme to remove you from the story, but does leave more questions than wanted. For example, we are never made exactly aware of what happened between Annette Bening and her mother in the years following the unplanned pregnancy and subsequent adoption process, an understanding that would have significantly helped in informing Bening’s character throughout the first third of the film. Other elements come across as forced, such as the friendship that emerges between Watts and her blind teenage neighbor, Violet, who dispenses tokens of wisdom like the cliché device she so clearly is.
Performance-wise, no one goes above and beyond, but that is not to say it is weak. Each actress does her character the justice she deserves and offers a deep, cerebral examination of her brand of mother, particularly Watts and Bening. Kerry Washington is engaging and seems to understand the psychology of Lucy on a fundamental level, but I kept getting the sense throughout that she was in somewhat over her head, and not in the way she should have been. The supporting players often steal the show here, none more so than S. Epatha Merkerson as Washington’s mother. Throughout the film we see women who are “mothers” but Merkerson’s Ada is the only one I would consider a “mom.” If anything, this film highlights the importance of such a distinction.
Here is a touching film in the sincerest sense of the word. With a subject and structure that could easily delve into hackneyed clichés, it quite successfully maneuvers around these pitfalls, despite a few trips here and there. If it is playing near you, I would say give it a watch. In the midst of summer movie 3D action mania, “Mother and Child” is a breath of fresh air.
SIDENOTE: In the theater I saw this in, they accidentally showed the 'Coco and Igor' trailer twice. I think this is a sign that I need to find this movie no matter what it takes. Also the Tilda Swinton Italian film 'I Am Love.' I highly recommend looking those trailers up, both look incredible.
