MOM AND DAD
US, 2017, 86 minutes, Colour.
Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters, Zackery Arthur, Robert T.Cunningham, Lance Henriksen.
Directed by Brian Taylor.
The title seems so American. And, at the beginning, it seems very American, the basic American family in Middle America. Mom is Selma Blair. Dad is Nicolas Cage (and, perhaps, that should be a warning that there is violence and outrage to come).
In the early part of the film, all seems normal enough at home, relationships, the touches of conflict, touches of rebellion, but love and care. There are also expected sequences at school.
Whether it is a virus or some kind of mysterious presence, the parents are both infected and the result is that they turn against their children – in the most violent and repulsive way, taking more than a cue out of some of the violent films that Nicolas Cage was making at this time, often five titles a year.
What begins in domestic ordinariness culminates in an eerie sense of menace, the transformation of the parents, their persecution to their of their children, wanting to destroy them. (And, as something of a bonus, there is a cameo appearance by that veteran of similar kinds of films, Lance Henrikson.)
1. The title, the tone? Audiences expecting something folksy? Audiences expecting the opposite?
2. The American family, relationships between parents and children? Conflicts? Rebellions? Love and care? Exasperations?
3. The town, the homes, school, classrooms, assemblies? The streets? The final action confined to the home, the basements? The musical score?
4. Setting up the family, the father being very busy, playing with his children, asleep at his desk, moods, memories of the past in the car with the girl and the sex? The mother, devoted, her teenage daughter, contradictions? Love for the younger son? The relationship between the couple?
5. Carley, in her room, with her parents, wilful? Riley? The girl talk? Boys? The other girls in the class? The teacher, criticisms, confiscating phones? The relationship with Damon? His doing the exam, getting out early?
6. Kendall, the criticisms of her in-laws, her frustration at not having a career, her friend and their going to aerobics? The chat afterwards? Puzzling about her daughter?
7. The crisis, the mysterious origins of the crisis, media influence, television sets, the reporting of the news? Mass hysteria? The classroom, the phone call, the teacher letting the children out? The parents of the gate? The children massed in the courtyard, their trying to escape, leaping over the fence, Carly and her friend escaping? Going to her house, her mother arriving home, the TV news, her mother killing Carly’s friend?
8. Kendall, her concern, Brent, his coming home early? Josh, playful? The changing of the situation? Brent, his attacks, madness? Kendall trying to restrain him, her change?
9. The children, trying to escape, the threats, the violence, going to the basement, locking the door, means to preserve themselves? The parents, at the door, soars, implements, trying to get through?
10. The principle that only the parents were trying to kill their own children? Damon, his own father, his father’s attack? His coming to the house, attempts to help Carly, Brent and his attacks on him? Over the railing, his recovery?
11. The children, expressing their love for their parents? The parents and the menace, the threats, ingenuity?
12. The children getting the upper hand, tying up their parents, their talking to their parents – and the sudden ending of the film?
