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.

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