Mother and Child: Great drama - boring title.

Mother and Child (drama)

Directed by Rodrigo Garcia

Starring Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and Samuel L. Jackson

Sony Pictures | 2009 | 127 min | Rated R | Released Dec 14, 2010

Video:

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC

Video resolution: 1080p

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Audio:

English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Subtitles:

English, English SDH

Disc:

Single 50GB Blu-ray Disc

The Film 4.5/5

In the special features, director Rodrigo Garcia describes Mother and Child as “a drama for grown-ups” and he’s exactly right. The film is aimed at people who enjoy emotional drama, and examining the connections between people. While I was watching, I found myself comparing the structure of the story to 21 Grams and Babel, only to find that the director of those films, Alejandro González Iñárritu, was listed as an executive producer.

The film follows three story arcs and ultimately brings them together.

The most interesting character is Karen (Bening) who had a baby girl when she was 14 and gave her up for adoption. We see how she cares for her own mother and puts her life on hold because of her. But on some level, she wonders what happened to her own child. She mentions in the opening minutes of the film that her daughter’s 37th birthday is coming up.

We then see Elizabeth (Watts) applying for a job as a lawyer. She mentions that she was adopted and that her mother had her when she was 14. Her potential employer, Paul (Jackson), is impressed by her honesty and credentials and she gets the job.

A third woman, Lucy (Washington), is unable to have children of her own and is desperate to adopt. We see her and her husband interviewed by a nun to see whether they are a suitable couple.

The story shows how Karen and Elizabeth have been affected by never knowing each other:

Karen devotes her life to looking after her mother and working as a geriatric nurse. She has never been married. Her maid has a little girl and Karen resents having her show up at her house. It seems that she has distanced herself from children and resents people who have children in their lives. Her own loss was an event that she has never recovered from. She’s abrupt and sometimes rude to people and ensures that she never gets close enough to men to develop any romantic feelings. Everything she does is designed to protect herself from any potential pain in the future.

Elizabeth is fiercely independent. She seduces Paul and is the dominant partner when they have sex. She’s also happy to pursue married men and makes a move on one of her neighbors. As we learn more about her, it becomes clear how she’s been affected by never knowing her mother. I won’t reveal those details because it would ruin the story. She regularly moves around from one place to another and seems unwilling to be tied down. Although she has a lot of ambitious goals, they have to be achieved on her terms. She’s not a very nice person, but maybe it’s not completely her fault.

Lucy is willing to do almost anything to become a parent. She meets a young girl who wants to audition her to decide whether she’s a suitable foster parent for the child she plans to give up for adoption. Some of the questions disturb her, but she answers them honestly. Her husband doesn’t appear to be as enthusiastic about the process, but Lucy persists.

That’s the setup. I can’t give away anything else without ruining some of the surprises. All three women experience events which change them. Karen undergoes the biggest change and grows as a person throughout the story. 

I made a point of seeing the 10 Best Picture nominations last year and enjoyed them all, but I would rank Mother and Child above five of them. The acting is strong across the board and I’m a little surprised that Bening wasn’t nominated for this role rather than for her role in The Kids Are All Right. Mother and Child wouldn’t work without her performance. We see her accepting her situation, reacting when an event changes it, and ultimately transforming herself into a different person. She shows a vast range of emotions and, although I greatly admire American Beauty, this might be her strongest performance to date.

Watts, Washington, Jackson and Jimmy Smits also turn in good performances and I believed in everything they did. Those that I haven’t mentioned were great too.

I didn’t hear a word about the film during its limited theatrical run. The marketing just didn’t exist as far as I saw. I understand the reasoning and know that the audience for an emotional drama is small and growing smaller every year, but it pains me to see films like Mother and Child ignored. Will they eventually cease to be made so that we can have more sequels? Probably so. But I’ll try to do my part and highlight those worthy of attention.

Video Quality 4.5/5

Mother and Child was shot digitally, but it doesn’t detract from the overall look. Detail is strong and I didn’t detect any flaws. There are a few releases with better picture quality, but this is right up there and you won’t have any complaints.

Audio Quality 4/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track does exactly what it is supposed to do. It’s a quiet story, driven by dialogue, but everything sounds clear. The ambient sounds add to the experience, but don’t expect your speakers to receive much of a workout. It’s just not that kind of movie.

Special Features 2.5/5

All of the additional content is presented in full HD.

Deleted Scenes (3:43) – Three short scenes that didn’t make it into the film.

Creating the Family Tree (13:39) – Director Rodrigo Garcia talks with some of the cast and crew and explains how the film came to be made.

Universally Connected (15:37) – An extension of the previous feature, but going into greater depth.

Trailer (2:10)

Previews

BD-Live

Mother and Child was one of the best dramas released in 2010. Anchored by a stellar performance from Bening, none of the acting disappoints. The title sounds boring and hardly anyone bothered seeing it, but fans of emotional drama shouldn’t miss this one. There are quite a few surprises and deeper connections between some of the characters that I didn't mention for fear of spoiling the film. If action is your thing, give this a miss.

Overall score 4.5/5 

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My Top 20 Dramas: Part 4, #1-5

My Top 20 Dramas (final part)

5. American Beauty (1999)

Directed by Sam Mendes

Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Thora Birch

American Beauty is the story of how Lester Burnham (Spacey) rebels against his boring lifestyle and acts to change it. He’s unhappy with his wife, Carolyn (Bening), while his daughter, Jane (Birch), barely acknowledges his existence. Mendes explores the difference between the image we present to other people and what actually goes on behind the scenes. There’s plenty of dark humor and this might just be Spacey’s best role. All three people make big changes and develop as characters throughout the film. It expresses feelings that a lot of people feel, but never do anything about.

My full review can be found here.

4. The Green Mile (1999)

Directed by Frank Darabont

Starring Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan and David Morse

The best Stephen King adaptations are directed by Frank Darabont. The Green Mile is set in a prison in the 1930s and all of the inmates are waiting to be executed in the electric chair. It’s not a traditional prison story as all of the prisoners have their own cell and don’t come into contact with each other. The warders, led by Paul Edgcomb, have their world turned upside down when John Coffey (Duncan) arrives on the scene. Edgcomb, now an old man, narrates the story and everything we see happened when he was a young man. Coffey is a giant of a man, but is exceptionally quiet and gentle. I won’t reveal how he shakes things up because it would ruin the surprise. It’s a wonderful drama and Darabont takes his time telling the story. Don’t be put off by the 189-minute running time because you’ll probably be sorry that it’s over when it ends. It also has the best performance by a mouse in the history of motion pictures.


Click here for my full review.

3. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis

Reservoir Dogs was a promising debut and Pulp Fiction sees Tarantino take a step forward. His screenplay deservedly won the Oscar and it’s full of the realistic dialogue that’s found in all of his films. Vincent Vega (Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Jackson) play two killers. The most interesting thing about them is their conversations and outlook on life. Bruce Willis is also in the mix, playing a boxer who is paid to fix a fight and goes on the run after failing to keep his promise. The film is full of interesting characters. Christopher Walken appears in just one scene, but you’ll never forget it. Uma Thurman hinted at the potential she would eventually realize in the Kill Bill movies. The non-linear plot is a sequence of bizarre events rather than a coherent story, but I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s hard to pick a favourite Tarantino movie, but this currently has the edge.

2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Directed by Frank Darabont

Starring Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins and Bob Gunton

Shawshank is another Stephen King story adapted by Frank Darabont and it’s also set in a prison. Andy Dufresne (Robbins) plays a man convicted of murdering his wife. Red (Freeman) befriends him and helps him adjust to prison life. The film has been criticized by some for manipulating our feelings, but don’t all movies aim do that? The pacing is slow, allowing us to feel the passage of time as Dufresne serves his long sentence. My favourite scene happens while several inmates are tarring a roof, but the film is full of memorable scenes. I doubt that Robbins or Freeman have ever delivered better performances. As with most Stephen King stories, there’s a real sense of justice by the conclusion. I’m not sure how many times I have seen Shawshank, but I know I’ll keep watching it on a regular basis.

1. Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Directed by David Lynch

Starring Naomi Watts. Laura Harring and Justin Theroux

David Lynch isn’t the easiest filmmaker to like. He doesn’t like explaining the meaning of anything and insists that you draw your own conclusions. Mulholland Dr. is particularly baffling on the first viewing. It’s unclear what’s happening and the whole film is turned on its head in the last 45 minutes. It makes the viewer question the validity of everything that has happened up to that point. Betty (Watts) plays a bright-eyed aspiring actress who befriends Rita (Harring); a woman suffering from amnesia following a car accident. Part of the story plays like a Nancy Drew mystery as the two try to find Rita’s true identity. In fact, the whole film is about identity. There’s an air of mystery throughout and numerous scenes filled with dark humor. It’s also actually quite frightening in places if you allow yourself to be drawn in. If it works for you, you’ll find yourself reading about the film and watching it again within a couple of days. If it fails, you’ll regret ever seeing it. I watched it two days running and have seen it many times since. This is the film that changed the way I think about cinema.

My full review can be found here.

 

See #16-20 on my list here.

See #11-15 on my list here.

See #6-10 on my list here.

I Hope that you enjoyed reading about my Top 20 dramas. Feel free to comment and add your own list.

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American Beauty: Kevin Spacey's finest role?

American Beauty (drama)

Directed by Sam Mendes

Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Chris Cooper, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari

Paramount Pictures | 1999 | 122m | Rated R | Sep 21, 2010

Video:

MPEG-4 AVC | 1080p | 2.35:1

Audio:

English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

French, Portuguese, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1

English: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles:

English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish

Disc:

Single 50GB Blu-ray disc, region free 

The Film 5/5

American Beauty won five Oscars: Actor in a leading role (Kevin Spacey), cinematography (Conrad L. Hall), best director (Sam Mendes), screenplay (Alan Ball) and best picture (Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks). It’s a weird tale told in an unusual way.

The film contains nudity, violence, bad language, drug use and smoking, so the R-rating is warranted.

We learn during the opening narration that our protagonist, Lester Burnham (Spacey), is going to die. The events leading up to his eventual death are funny, moving, sad and unpredictable. Burnham is a pathetic character entering a mid-life crisis and the film shows how his character changes, as well as the lives of the people around him. There is a significant amount of character development in this story. The choice to use Burnham as a narrator was inspired and adds to the feel of the story.

It’s not strictly a comedy, but it’s full of dark humor that is hard to predict. In short, it's the funniest kind of humor. If you found Fargo or any of Quentin Tarantino's films amusing, you’ll probably laugh at this too.

Burnham changes his life by becoming more assertive and ceasing to care what other people might think. This catalyst for this rebellion is a meeting with his new neighbor, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) who gets high with him before quitting his job on the spot.

One of the most important themes of the film is beauty, as you might guess from the title. What is beauty? How do different people define beauty? The contrast between how the characters view other people is startling in places. Some like what they are told to like and dress how they are told to dress. Others are true individuals and express themselves differently. It’s interesting to see. You might even find yourself changing your own opinion of what is beautiful as the events unfold.

Another theme is the dysfunctional family. The two main families – the Burnham’s and Fitts’ – couldn’t be more different. The one thing they do have in common is that they are living a lie and mostly playing the roles assigned to them by society. They gradually change throughout the movie and try to bring meaning to their lives. we all do this to some extent in our own lives. Why do you do what you do? What do you really want from life and why? Do you set goals in order to get there, or just let things happen? Burnham tries to make things happen.

I’m probably in the minority, but I consider this Spacey’s best role. American Beauty just makes my Top 10 of all time and it’s largely due to his performance. The supporting cast also does good work. His wife (Annette Bening) deals with Burnham’s change in her own way while their daughter (Thora Birch) ignores both parents and lives her own life. Chris Cooper has a small but important role as Mr. Fitts.

Mendes has taken a look beneath the surface of the American family. It seems that everyone has secrets and chooses to hide them from almost everybody else. The film has humor, sadness, an air of mystery and considerable tension, despite the revelation of Burnham's impending death in the opening narration.

Video Quality 3.5/5

The Sapphire Series is off to an inconsistent start. While Braveheart was given an exceptional transfer, Gladiator was not so lucky. There was also an audio problem on Saving Private Ryan. The good news is that Paramount offered a free upgrade to fix the problems. Unfortunately, many people will be disappointed with American Beauty on Blu-ray.

There’s no question that the picture quality is significantly better than that of the DVD. The problem is it’s inconsistent. The majority of the film is plagued by frequent white speckles on the image and occasional print damage. Detail is vastly improved, but the images still look a bit drab and subdued due to the source material. Colors look good throughout and red is boosted in some scenes as Mendes intended.

The few scenes involving Ricky’s camcorder look terrible. I know that it’s due to the source material, but the contrast between those scenes and the main movie is huge. 

Audio Quality 4.5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio track is a big improvement. Ambient sounds such as rain falling are easy to pick out. Thomas Newman’s haunting score sounds impressive and adds to the overall mood of the film. Dialogue is always easy to understand and the louder scenes, such as Burnham rocking out while driving, have considerable punch. No complaints at all about the sound presentation.

Special Features 3/5

Commentary by Sam Mendes and Alan Ball

American Beauty Look Closer (21:52)

Storyboard with Sam Mendes and Conrad L. Hall (1:01:20)

Theatrical Trailers (3:00 and 1:22)

Similar Movies

American Beauty has a unique feel so it’s hard to suggest similar movies. Revolutionary Road, also directed by Mendes, is another movie exploring dysfunctional families and people living a lie. It’s not as good though and the characters don’t have the same appeal. Strangely enough, I’m also reminded of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. While it’s stop motion, the themes and quirkiness of the story are similar. And finally, check out Magnolia. It’s a sprawling study of several different characters and the threads are drawn together expertly by director Paul Thomas Anderson.

Overall, I was pleased with the presentation, but the white speckles were too frequent to be overlooked and were a distraction. I’m not sure whether that could be fixed without a full restoration. If you’re a fan of the film, buy the Blu-ray and enjoy the enhanced presentation, but temper expectations. There’s no guarantee we’ll ever see a better version.

Overall score 4.5/5 

See where American Beauty ranks in my Top 20 dramas.


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