SYNOPSIS:
Raising kids is never easy. Eliza, a stay-at-home mom of two, hilariously finds this out in seemingly endless day where she must plan a birthday party, deal with her scatter-brained husband, save her car from being towed, and write an essay for a parenting magazine before the fast-approaching deadline. That's Motherhood!
MOVIE REVIEW:
Uma
Thurman hasn’t had a lot of luck at the box office lately.
Her last three films before this latest- “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”,
“The Life before Her Eyes” and “The Accidental
Husband”- have all somehow managed to find their way
into the doldrums. And to make matters worse, this latest
“Motherhood” gained notoriety for grossing a grand
total of $133 during its opening weekend in the U.K.- which
translates to about 12 people watching it (granted that it
only opened in one cinema).
Has it really come to this for the Oscar-nominated actress
of Pulp Fiction? Is “Motherhood” indeed the dreck
that it appears to be? This reviewer doesn’t have an
answer for the first question; but at least for the second,
he can tell you that “Motherhood” isn’t
as bad as it seems. Well, barely. It’s the kind of the
movie you won’t still be disappointed if you go in with
zero expectations, but don’t expect to be pleasantly
surprised.
Written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann, “Motherhood”
is set in a day in the life of a New York City full-time housewife,
Eliza Welsh, whose one mammoth task of the day is to organise
a birthday party for her six-year old daughter Clara. In between,
she has to send Clara to school, take her younger son Lucas
and the incontinent dog out, collect Clara’s birthday
cake which has her name spelt wrong, and try to finish a 500-word
essay on the subject of motherhood for a magazine.
If all that sounds minutiae, it really, truly is. Dieckmann’s
intent of making this dramedy is to portray accurately the
struggles and challenges that a full-time mother goes through
day by day- and to a large extent, she has achieved her goal.
But no thanks to its authenticity, “Motherhood”
itself feels like a struggle, a challenge even, to sit through,
simply because the events that Dieckmann has surrounded Eliza
with are too trivial and inconsequential even to actually
inspire much interest.
Do we need to see Eliza trying to juggle more things than
she can carry? Do we need to see her rush for a parking spot?
Do we need to see how she argues with a passerby who is indignant
that she picks up her dog poo? And most of all, do we need
to see a full minute of Eliza dancing to the tune of some
80s hippie song? Apparently so, because Dieckmann dwells on
all of this- just without the knack of finding the humour
in these everyday scenes to make them more interesting than
watching paint dry.
The best thing Dieckmann has going for her is Uma Thurman’s
performance. Glammed down to play the bespectacled mid-40s
Eliza, Thurman disappears in a role that proves that she is
not just capable of over-the-top colourful roles like those
in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Unfortunately, her talent is
sorely wasted in a film that meanders and meanders for about
90 minutes before it ends. For fans of Thurman though, the
consolation is that the actress still has what it takes to
carry a movie- she just needs the right vehicle to make a
comeback. Let’s hope that comes around pretty soon.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio
Commentary with director Katherine Dieckmann and producer
Rachel Cohen - Both Dieckmann and Cohen don’t
sound particularly excited talking about their film. Rachel,
in particular, is absolutely useless on this commentary.
Interviews with Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie
Driver and writer/director Katherine Dieckmann - Only
Thurman sounds like she’s mildly interested in the film,
the others all seem to have recognised this for the turkey
it is.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
You
won’t get much from the back speakers even though the
audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Image is sharp and
detailed, preserving the colourful palette of the film.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 22 April 2010
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