MAMA’S BOY

US, 2008, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jon Heder, Diane Keaton, Jeff Daniels, Anna Faris, Eli Wallach, Mary Kaye Place.
Directed by Tim Hamilton.

The enjoyment of Mama’s Boy depends on audience response to comedian Jon Heder. He made a big impact in Napoleon Dynamite and appeared in such films as Blades of Glory. He does variations on the same theme, the nerdish almost-thirty-year-old who irritates people, is self-absorbed, needs to go through a process to become more adult. Heder does this quite well – but many audiences may find him too irritating and self-centred. Diane Keaton does her variation on floppy mother as the widow who has her son at home, panders to his needs, indulges him, but suddenly meets a self-help guru (Jeff Daniels) and is infatuated by him. Crisis begins at home. Anna Faris appears as a would-be songwriter and ninety-one-year-old Eli Wallach appears as a sympathetic friend who challenges the young man.

The film is a variation on the smother-love theme (with Diane Keaton appearing at the same time in the film Smother).

1.Comedy? Drama? Farce?

2.The title, the focus on Jeffrey? His relationship with his mother? Her attitude towards him after his father’s death?

3.The suburban setting, the American town, homes? The shops, the bars? The realistic feel? For this kind of comedy? The musical score, the songs?

4.The focus on Jeffrey? Jon Heder’s performance, screen personality, appearance, talk, manner? Twenty-nine, at home, his relationship with his mother, possessive? Nerdish in his attitude and behaviour? His room? His work in the store, relationship with Seymour, unreliable, Seymour eventually sacking him? His love for his mother, wanting her to be home on Friday nights, his jealousies? His reaction to Mert? Mert coming home? His wanting to sabotage Mert? The set-ups, the malice? Mert and his reactions? Finding Norah, confiding her, pretending to her about having a girlfriend? His finding out more information about Mert? Intercepting the letters? Persuading Norah to travel with him to Arizona? His confrontation of the woman – and discovering she was Mert’s daughter? Beginning to learn some lessons? Return home, trying to be more amenable? How much of a change of heart? His interactions with his mother? Supporting Mert, the bonding after the battles? The happy ending? Moving out – would he grow up?

5.Jan, widow, her life, her relationship with her son, his being at home? Going to the talk, meeting Mert, attracted, going to listen to him play? The relationship? Her means of moving her son away from home? Less dependent? The meetings with Mert, at home, Jeffrey and his upsets? Set-ups? His going to Arizona and her reaction? Her determination to marry Mert? The confrontations with Jeffrey? The reconciliation, the happy ending?

6.Mert, his talks, the American spiel? His background, his story? His clientele? Meeting Jan, inviting her to the performance, the relationship? His interactions with Jeffrey? The comeuppances? His dealing with Jeffrey, telling him the truth? The truth about his daughter? Jan and her not wanting any lies, her reaction, the reconciliation? The happy ending?

7.Norah, at the shop, her serving Jeffrey, talking with him? Her appearance, piercings? Her songs, the social content? Her ambitions? Jeffrey supporting her? The recording – and Jeffrey persuading her to go to Arizona? Her reaction? The happy ending?

8.Seymour, his friendship with Jan? His giving a job to Jeffrey, Jeffrey unreliable? His sacking him? His talking with Jeffrey, helping him out with the bed in the basement – and Jeffrey’s obtuseness in thinking that he would have the bed and Seymour the floor? The ring? Seymour and his age, wisdom and advice?

9.How well did these elements blend together? The moral of the story?