MOTHER AND CHILD
US, 2009, 125 minutes, Colour.
Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Cherry Jones, David Morse, Marc Blucas, S. Epatha Merkerson, La Tanya Richardson, Shareeka Epps, Elizabeth Pena, Lawrence Pressman, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Amy Brenneman.
Directed by Rodrigo Garcia.
A simple title for a complex, always interesting and always moving portrait, mainly of women, but also of some men and loving and family relationships, mingled with a lot of pain and sorrow.
Rodrigo Garcia previously directed two films which explore female characters and relationships: Things You Can Tell by Just Looking at Her (1999) and Nine Lives (2005). He has written and directed for television, especially several episodes of Six Feet Under and In Treatment. He has great skill in writing credible characters, telling stories with feeling and directing them for unobtrusive maximum effect.
There are at least seven mothers and children here but there are three at the centre of the film. Annette Bening gives one of her best performances as a fifty year old woman who had to give up her baby for adoption when she gave birth at age 14. A demanding perfectionist with a curt manner, she looks after her aged and infirm mother and resents her mother’s friendship with their house cleaner and her daughter. A co-worker at the hydrotherapy centre, a sympathetic Jimmy Smits, alienates her at first but a series of events leads to her softening and the possibilities of happiness in her life.
An excellent Naomi Watts plays an ambitious, steely-controlled (even in seduction) lawyer who was adopted and whose adoptive parents are dead. Independent, she goes to work in an LA firm for Samuel L. Jackson in a very humane role.
Meanwhile, Kerry Washington finds that she and her husband cannot have children and want to adopt. They meet Cherry Jones as the kind nun who supervises the adoption program. The pregnant mother who is to give the couple her child bonds with the adoptive mother but things don’t work out for either the marriage or the adoption, although there is a satisfyingly happy ending despite a great deal of grief. The mothers of the husband and wife are important in this story as offering other angles on the mother and child theme, supportive mothers and dominating mothers.
Somebody remarked that this is the material of television soap opera. Yes, this is often the contents of episodes, but Garcia’s treatment of material and characters goes well below the surface of the stories and explores the feelings for mothers for their children. The men are at the edge of the portraits of the women and several of them don’t come off very well at all.
The film runs for just over two hours which enables us to spend quite an amount of time with the three principal women, to share their lives, their emotions and their decisions, even when we don’t agree with them or find them sometimes alienating. It is a tribute to the three actresses that they are convincing and take us into the interior lives of the women they are portraying.
1. The title, audience expectations? The impact for women? For men? Older generations? Younger?
2. The Los Angeles settings, the range of neighbourhoods, wealth, the orphanage, ordinary homes, suburbia, the cross-section of Los Angeles life? The locations and the feel for the city? The musical score?
3. The introduction to Karen, aged fourteen, her relationship with the boy, the kiss, the cut to her being pregnant, the cut to her giving birth, the cut to Karen in her fifties? At home, with her mother, her care for her mother, hard in herself, her mother turning away from her?
4. Karen’s story, at fourteen, the child, giving birth, handing the child over for adoption? Her being hurt by these memories? Writing letters to her daughter, her dreams? Her own mother and non-communication, disappointment, her work, the hydrotherapy? Meeting Paco, his attention, her curt words to him about his work, her expectations and being demanding? Paco and the enquiry about her feelings, his attempts to placate her, the coffee, the cold, walking away? The attempt to apologise? Karen going home, her attitude towards the maid, towards the maid’s daughter? Another mother and child? Resentments? Her mother talking to the maid instead of to her? Calling the daughter a thief, the necklace, the mother’s gift to the little girl? Upset, attempting to talk to Paco? The tomatoes incident? Her self-explanations? Her mother, going to hospital, the sudden death, her reaction? Her going to visit David, memories of the past, the sexual encounter, the past love for him, the changes in their lives? What might have been?
5. Paco, nice, divorced, his attempts to communicate with Karen, the tomatoes and her reaction, the card, going out with her, her unwillingness, finally going? His developing the relationship with her, mellowing her? Finally mellowing her? His daughter, the religious issues? The loss of the daughter and Karen’s anxiety, going to visit the orphanage, meeting Sister Joanne? Learning about the procedures, Karen writing the letter, wanting to meet her daughter? The letter being mislaid? The year passing, the grief? Going back to see the sister? Lucy and the adoption? Visiting Lucy? Thanking Paco? The finale – and the final photos?
6. The possibility of change, Karen and her long regrets, the bitter consequences and her effect on people, her personality, Paco able to effect a change?
7. Elizabeth and her story, aged thirty-seven, self-sufficient, her knowing she was adopted, blaming her mother? Falling out with the adoptive family, leaving home at seventeen? Having her tubes tied? Her not wanting to be a mother? Her study years, her intensity, her ambitions? Preparation for the interview with Paul? Her being a loner, not wanting to be part of the sisterhood? Her hard work, the briefs, working late at night, the dinner with Paul, the appropriate behaviour or not? Noticing the neighbour and his wife, her flirting, seduction, putting the panties in the drawer? This theme not followed through? Seductive with Paul, talking with him, loving him or not? The pregnancy, her going to the specialist, the doctor trying to be friendly, her curt attitude towards the doctor, to the possibility of abortion? The pregnancy and her anger? Her leaving? Not telling Paul, Paul’s puzzle? Her interview for further work, away from Paul? Her going to the apartment, Paul’s daughter and their discussion? Violet and communication? The birth, her determination to have the child, her death? The letter and the irony of of its being mislaid? The photo?
8. Paul, the law firm, his being a widower, the interview, the dinner, Elizabeth and her being seductive, the effect on him, love, his leaving, offer to stay with her? His family?
9. Lucy and Ray, the marriage, the interviews at the orphanage, Lucy’s tendency to chatter, Ray and his love, agreeing to the adoption, Lucy’s initiatives, Ray, agreeing with her? Lucy and her controlling? Sister Joanne? The possibility of being parents, the forms, the questionnaires? Ray and his visiting his parents, the pressure on Lucy? Ray’s own tenderness, weakness – and being pressurised into leaving? Lucy as strong, her feeling abandoned, reliance on her mother, tough, advice? Continuing to want to adopt? The meetings with Sister Joanne? The final emergency, taking the baby, the black baby? Her life with the child, the image of mother and child? Karen, finding out where she lived, visiting her and the child, playing, passing the time together, bonding? Karen and her granddaughter?
10. The portrait of Sister Joanne, contemporary nun, a type, breaking through the stereotype? Pleasant, businesslike, effective? The discussions? Tolerant? Setting up Lucy with the first pregnant girl, the pregnant girl testing Ray and Lucy, not liking Ray, Lucy talking too much, their meetings, sharing things together, the girl’s family? The preparations, buying things for the baby? The birth and the mother wanting to keep her child?
11. Ray’s parents, snobbish, the pressure?
12. Lucy’s mother, tough-minded, direct speaking, Lucy’s reaction, yet depending on her mother?
13. Paul’s family, the social at his apartment, the parties, Elizabeth’s presence, Paul’s daughter coming to see Elizabeth and discussing the matters with her?
14. Elizabeth, getting the work, going to the agency, the help of the agent?
15. The doctor, Elizabeth’s visit, the issue of abortion, the doctor talking about friends, Elizabeth’s abrupt reaction?
16. The maid, working well with Karen’s mother, her daughter present, Karen tough, the accusations of her daughter being a thief, her mother’s death? The maid continuing to work, with Paco, the bonds, finally leaving, Karen giving the necklace gift to the little girl?
17. The range of mothers and daughters in the film? A male screenwriter, his insights into women, his treatment of men?
