Prismark10 The Mother is a harsh, severe film about relationship and families. The characters are not physically abusive but mentally with children who simply do not care or are just distant from their parents.The emptiness of the parent-child relationship is there to see from the beginning as we see Peter Vaughan and Anne Reid travelling on the train to London to see their selfish son and equally selfish daughter.Reid soon becomes a widow and lives with her children for a while and starts an affair with his son's friend and builder (Daniel Craig) who also happens to be married as well as having an affair himself with Reids's daughter.Reid who raised her children, had a job and was almost dutiful to her husband is emotionally re-awakened by her affair with the youthful and physical Craig and this is depicted by her etchings. Contrast this when her daughter tries to set her up with an older man for which she has no emotional connection.The film does not entirely explain why Craig beds Reid, or why the children are so selfish and even bitter. The ending leaves a visceral punch to the gut. Almost all the characters are unlikable but at least Reid makes a journey of discovery and decides she does not want to waste away in her former marital home.The film is uneven, its a glorified television film but writer Hanif Kureshi, despite a few sex scenes handles the themes in a more sensitive and subtle manner than his earlier works.

Poseidon-3 In what has to rank as one of the mainstream cinema's most daunting pieces of subject matter, this BBC produced film explores the sexual relationship between a 60-something woman and a handyman 30 years her junior. Reid plays a grandmother (pushing 70!) whose feeble husband has managed to keep her tied to him and mostly subservient to him throughout their marriage (mostly due to the times, more than from a deliberate cruelty on his part.) While visiting their upwardly mobile and emotionally distant son in London (and also their daughter, who lives in the same vicinity), the husband (Vaughn) dies abruptly. Faced with a life of sitting in a chair watching the telly, Reid decides to return to London and reconnect with her children and grandchildren, who barely know her. Her extraordinarily neurotic and selfish daughter (Bradshaw) is carrying on an affair with the same handyman (Craig) who is building a conservatory onto the son's townhouse and asks Reid for advice about how to handle him. As Reid begins to strike up an acquaintance with Craig, she begins to find him appealing to herself and starts to unlock a lot of pent up feelings regarding her long lost sexuality and feelings of intimacy. Craig, who appreciates Reid's kind manner and thoughtful intellect, becomes drawn to her as well, causing plenty of drama and turmoil in an already unstable family. What could have been the world's most tawdry and tasteless film is saved by the deeply committed performance of Reid in the title role. She is given plenty of time to paint her character before the more sensationalistic scenes take place. It's a bit of a commentary on society that there's any discomfort at all in seeing a woman in her late 60's go to bed with a man far younger when when do the same thing quite frequently, but the disparity exists nonetheless. The scenes here are handled about as well as they could be in presenting the passion and sexuality of the situation without becoming too explicit. Craig does a very nice job here as well (displaying a much skinnier and less tantalizing body that he would later present in "Casino Royale"), but his character does seem to pendulum a lot with little or no explanation. He and Reid establish a nice chemistry between them in the scenes prior to their sexual liaisons. Other performances are strong, if not always appealing. Davies appears as a suitor more close to Reid's age and is alternately pleasant and repellent. The pace of the film is sure to test the patience of some viewers as it takes its time to build the story and includes a lot of quiet, dreamy scenes. London has rarely been presented this sunnily (the director also did "Notting Hill") which makes for a nice contrast to the sometimes downbeat goings-on. The film was shot using only natural or ambient light which may be why the director shot during so many sunny periods versus the stereotypical cloudy ones. It's a challenging work, but not without rewards. Just as in 1955's "All That Heaven Allows", a widow with two snotty children, who long for her to stay at home with the TV, creates a stir when she begins seeing a younger laborer with whom she's established an emotional connection. Now, of course, it's been ratcheted up with sexuality and the angle of the man being the daughter's lover as well, but the story thrust is pretty much the same.

strodes_student I am a college student studying a-levels and need help and comments from anyone who has any views at all about the theme of mothers in film, in the mother. Whether you have gone through something similar or just want to comment and help me research more about this film, any comment would much greatly appreciated. The comments will be used solely for exam purposes and will be included in my written exam. So if you have any views at all, im sure i can put them to use and you could help me get an A! I am also studying 'About a Boy' and 'Tadpole' so if you have seen these films as well, i would appreciate it if you could leave comments on here on that page. Thank you.

Henry Fields "If I sit down I will never stand up again", that's what the mother (the one of the title) says to his son when he tells her to get some rest (she's just widowed). He means that resting is what a woman of his age and in her situation has to do: to rest in peace, to neglect herself. But she's not in the mood for "resting", not yet. She also has a daughter who reproaches her for each and every disasters in her life... Suddenly, the revelation comes: sex and passion in the figure of a muscular carpenter 30 years younger than her (Daniel Craig, the brand new James Bond) when she "thought nobody would ever touch her again". It is a story that makes you reflect on many things, specially on what's a 60 something woman is supposed to do with her life when his husband dies. It doesn't look that we've advanced that such in those aspects. I mean, nobody's surprised when Sean Connery has a love affair in a movie with Catherine Zeta Jones... but what would you think if it was otherwise? An old woman, a young guy... nah, you ain't ready for that, are you?The movie has intimist tones all along its length, except for 2 or 3 sequences in which that tones breaks and out comes some explicit and foul-mouthed dialogs. Those vulgar touches and the way the son and the daughter find out their mother's love affair (pretty absurd -you'll know what I mean when you watch it-) are the only discordant elements in "The Mother". *My rate: 7/10