THE GOOD MOTHER
US, 1988, 104 minutes, Colour.
Diane Keaton, Liam Neeson, Jason Robards, Ralph Bellamy, Teresa Wright, James Naughtin, Joe Morton.
Directed by Leonard Nimoy.
The Good Mother is an exploration of family and values in the '80s. It is also a star vehicle for Diane Keaton who gives rather a mannered performance in the earlier sequences of the film, but gives stronger acting style to her final sequences, especially where she is forced to give an account of her values and when she loses her child.
The film is beautifully photographed in Boston and in the New England and Canadian countryside. It shows the family values of the past (surface and brittle as well as loving). It shows marriage breakdown, the shifting relationships, the revenge of one partner against the other and using the child. It also highlights the giving of evidence, legal interpretation compared with moral interpretation.
The film is glossy, melodramatic in many ways, but makes its point. Liam Neeson is very effective as the man in Diane Keaton's life who has to take the blame in the court case for the custody of her daughter. Jason Robards is the lawyer, James Naughtin is her husband. There are good performances also from Ralph Bellamy and Teresa Wright as Diane Keaton's grandparents.
There is a melancholic and romantic score by Elmer Bernstein and the film was directed by Leonard Nimoy (the Star Trek films, Three Men and a Bay).
1. A film about women, family, courts and justice and custody in the courts?
2. The title, its irony, the voiceover and Anna's comment on her own heritage, the relationship between Anna and Molly, the crisis, handling the crisis, the final comment on Anna seeming a good mother?
3. Boston locations, the American cities, the beauty of the countryside? An affluent world?
4. The introduction to the family, Anna as young, the distance of her parents, love for her grandparents, the family reunions, Babe and her influence on Anna, growing up, sexuality, Babe's daring, going overseas, the baby adopted, Babe's return and loud life, her accidental death?
5. Anna and the passing of the years, the marriage to Brian and the divorce, her love for lolly, the detail of their life together? The bonds between the two? her work, at the laboratory, her piano lessons? her self-image? Talking to the man with headphones in the laboratory and revealing herself? The meetings with Brian? Ursula and friendships? Distance from her own family?
6. The encounter with Leo in the laundromat, their sparring, his irritability, the offer of a date, the attraction, talking with Ursula, seeing the advertisement, the phone call? The outing, talking, shyness? The return home, the sexual encounter? The effect on Anna and the memories of her relationship with Brian, frigid? Her going home, the phone call the next morning? Their going out together, the beginning of the affair? Leo coming and his friendship with Molly, the bond between the man and the girl? Reading and the bath sequence? Molly's nightmare and getting into bed with them? The possibility of becoming a family unit?
7. Brian and his taking Molly for the month, the attack, the court case? Molly and what she said to the psychiatrist? The grounds for Brian's case? Anna's reaction, the visit to the lawyer, Leo telling the story plainly about the shower and Molly wanting to touch him? The criteria for his decision and permission? Audience response to this? Where did sympathies lie? With Leo? A danger to the child? Muth as lawyer, his strategies? Blaming Leo? The psychiatrist and the talk with Anna and the emphasis on the bonds between mother and daughter? Anna and the strong speech giving an account of her life and values? The changes in her life because of marriage, because of Leo? Greater frankness, teaching her daughter the facts of life, openness about the body? Anna going to visit her grandfather, the discussions about the money, her grandmother's talk and pressurising the grandfather?
8. The strategy and Leo as a victim? his behaviour in court? The cross-examinations? Brian and his evidence, Leo and the accusations, the interrogation of Anna? Brian's counsel and the legal answers? Law and the comparisons with reality? Morality? The bond with Molly appealed to?
9. Anna losing the case, her grief, Tuth's support? Future? Wanting to be alone, her anger with Leo? The voiceover and her comments on what happened?
10. The portrait of Leo, his skills and his art, the attraction to Anna, the love, his regard for her, his behaviour with Molly and his honesty, his becoming the villain, his phone calls and desperation, his loss of Anna? Her consent that she rang him now and again?
11. The sketch of the grandparents, the family reunions, grandfather in charge, the long-suffering grandmother? Love, toughness? The grandmother and her revelation of the years of unhappiness? The support of Anna, the pressure for the money?
12. Molly as an ordinary little girl, love for her mother, growing up, school? Coping, going with her father? with Leo, with her father? Talking to the psychiatrist? The lifestyles, the court's decision to protect the child? The consequences, Anna and her grandmother watching Molly at the water and commenting about her growing, up?
13. Friendship with Leo? The openness, sexuality, a valuable exploration of the role of women, women as mothers, divorce, separation, custody and the grounds for custody?
