Motherhood

source: Motherhood

Katherine Dieckmann's 'Motherhood' looks at the day in the life of city-dwelling mother Eliza Welch. Mothers could easily relate to Eliza's day-to-day struggles in being there for her family, in trying to find passion in life and in attempting to just make it through the day (although the film really does exaggerate these situations). Perhaps non-mothers, especially husbands and children who take their hardworking mothers for granted, could appreciate more of the effort and sacrifices mothers make. Many tend to see Thurman's Eliza as whiny and bitter but which mother hasn't had one of those days? Much of her frustration is also to do with the fact that she has just realized how fast her daughter is growing up and is trying to hold on to her childhood. I did find the characterization of the Eliza's husband halfbaked. At first he appears to be this slacker jerk who doesn't do anything while the poor wife is working hard to make ends meet, then in the second half, the writer tries to make him this kind loving husband who cares about his wife and attempts to redeem him by the end twist (with the envelope). So what would have happened had he not received it? Would he have remained the frustrated jerk? It just felt forced as if the writer wanted to quickly round things up. Uma Thurman does a decent job. She is supported well by the rest of the cast, especially Minnie Driver. 'Motherhood' does tend to be far-fetched at times. An example is the scene where Eliza tries to drive away. However, overall, it's not all that bad of a movie.

I started watching this movie with more or less open mind, except for the fact that the genre was said to be "comedy". Therefore, I expected a humorous description of the life of a mother. Unfortunately, Motherhood failed completely for me. There was no humour at all, unless you count a couple of forced unfunny jokes. But there wasn't enough drama to call this a drama either. It seems to me that the director/writers did not actually know what they were making and someone in marketing decided to call it humour. Now to the spoilers: For the first hour or so, the movie showed Uma Thurman running errands and blogging and encountering various sorts of people. Running errands may be part of motherhood, but it certainly is only a small part of it. Then, for the last half an hour, the movie focused on light drama as the blogging mother finally finds a way to describe what motherhood means to her (while the father is having fun with the kids and spending time with them). Unfortunately, none of what she ends up describing was ever shown on screen - she never showed that side of motherhood to the viewers and thus her description feels empty and tagged on. A lie, in short. I must further add that I'm a father of a two-year-old and my wife is naturally a mother. Neither of us saw anything in this movie relating to our life. Except that we are always busy, but we didn't really need to be told that. ;)

I can relate to this film because being a mom is the hardest job I've ever tackled. This is the story of a difficult day in the life of a stay at home mom who is desperately trying to regain some piece of her identity apart from motherhood. To answer the question raised in one of the other reviews, "Is this motherhood" - Yes, it can be like that, relentless, thankless and exhausting. Personally, I found it refreshing that it was much more realistic than those spotless homes of movie families where nothing is out of place and the husband shares equally in everything family related so that everyone seems to live a perfect existence. I'm sure there are families out there where everyone cooperates and things run smoothly. There are just as many out there that have their serious flaws and unbalanced work loads and people who live right on the border of losing it when the things that go wrong seem to mount up and conspire against you to prevent you from getting even the simple things accomplished. Maybe the reason some people have a problem with this movie is that it shows more reality than fantasy. Whatever the case, I say, judge for yourself, and see the flaws in humanity as they are. We don't always make the right decisions, sometimes we let each other down, and sometimes we can forgive each other and make things right again.

Motherhood is about a Greenwich Village mom Eliza, who is so busy taking care of her kids, her elderly next-door neighbor and feeling inadequate about the fact that she hasn't "made it" professionally that she lives a chaotic life and takes terrible care of herself and of course, for all her devotion to her kids, neglects them also. She can't take care of her kids' needs if she's not looking after her own. This is how many women live their lives, but the filmmaker did the film a disservice by setting it in the Village--it's such a wealthy neighborhood that it's hard to feel sympathy for this mom. And as for the scene where she actually invites a strange deliveryman up into her family's apartment on the day of her daughter's birthday party, no less, and dances with him is completely unbelievable for a film set in New York. Even a ditzy person like her would completely distrust strangers. As some of the other reviewers here have noted, Eliza is an immensely privileged woman who lives in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the world. Her privilege undercuts the important message of the film, which should be about the under-appreciated and mostly invisible but enormously time-consuming job it is to raise children. If this film was made with a truly working-class setting, it would have been more believable. And even though it's supposed to be a comedy, it actually isn't particularly funny.

If you make the mistake of reading this movie's own description, you go into it thinking that you're going to find a light-hearted, funny account of a mother trying to pull off the ultimate birthday party. The early parts of the movie seem to reinforce this, especially the encounter with the snooty neighbour and daughter who go on and on about the fabulous birthday party they had pulled off. So, you think this is going to turn into a competition to make a better birthday party. But from that point on, any sense of fun in this movie just absolutely disappears, and never reappears. This becomes a sombre movie, that really focuses more on Eliza's disillusionment with her life, her husband, the sacrifices she had to make, etc., etc. Boo hoo. You had to sacrifice something for the sake of your children and things didn't turn out exactly the way you had hoped and dreamed they would. Well, Eliza, welcome to real life. Sometimes we sacrifice and change direction for the sake of our kids. It's called parenthood - or in Eliza's case, "Motherhood." OK. I didn't like the overall whiny tone of the movie or of Eliza's character. Setting that distaste aside, I have two fundamental problems with this: (a) it wasn't funny or even just humorous, and (b) it wasn't really interesting. There was nothing that made this story seem like a movie should be made out of it. Eliza's car got towed. Wow. Her friend got mad at her because she broke a confidence. Gee. She lost her parking spot. Tell me it ain't so! Gripping stuff. The only thing I felt compelled to watch closely was when Eliza brought the messenger in for a drink of water. You're thinking that "something" is going to happen between the two of them. I liked the way that turned out. Beyond that, the movie's really devoid of substance. It benefits from having basically likable leads. Uma Thurman and Anthony Edwards are fine. Not a lot of chemistry between them, and the one extended kissing scene between them in the whole movie seemed quite forced and artificial. But they're likable enough. They make it watchable; they don't make it good, though. (3/10)

I don't always like the "german" titles American (or other "foreign") movies get in Germany. But in this instance, I think the title (which I wrote as my summary line) fits better than the original title. It also might get some people off the case/movie, who seem to genuinely hate the movie. I don't think, the filmmakers went out there, to show us the "ultimate" truth about parenthood (or motherhood for that matter), but just a slice of life. Of course that doesn't mean, that the movie has no deficits. It seems a bit unbalanced and one sided at times. But it still has quite a few moments. And depending on your likings, you might nod your head in agreement or shake it in disagreement/disgust. It's definitely a movie that was made for a specific audience. Hate it or love it for it

This is a review for motherhood, but I'd like to address Uma's part in this. What I love about her in this movie is her ability to show how perfectly devoid of arrogance and conscious vanity she is. Everything about Uma Thurman screams "awkward", from the flaring nostrils, to the gawky wingspan - but Uma is choice and nothing in the world can change that she is delectable from tip to toe (and yes, I am a heterosexual female). I bring up Uma's luminescence because it saves this film from being another dreary, almost funny, shallow take on Motherhood. Her performance is spot on, and smoking while hanging out the car window, blasting the radio in the car while driving insanely, moving a vehicle without properly strapping the child in, this is all stuff that mothers succumb too on a daily basis. I do have a differing opinion on the messenger scenes, SPOILER ALERT: The messenger storyline was not unfinished, there was nothing else for a woman who won't cheat - for some wives that is cheating in a sense - it's hurtful and hopeful in soul crushing contradiction to have an attractive member of the opposite sense look at us with something other than hausfrau utility. Uma came clean in the car for this reason, and in this "coming clean" scene in the car with Anthony Edwards, Uma gives the best monologue of the movie. I give this movie a 7/10. A 10/10 for Uma's performance, as well as Anthony Edwards performance (who is perfect as the "nearly" there husband), and a -3/10 for sprinkles of reality on a cupcake of anecdotes. My final thoughts: Very watchable, and likable. Not a must-see unless you're a Thurman fan.

My wife and I enjoyed this stark picture of one mother's struggles to be the "contemporary" mom. Many will/do not like this movie, maybe because it hurts to admit that the lead couple in fact mirrors (in a Picasso-ish way) a lot of us parents these days. Despite the title, Motherhood is not trying to be a "universal portrait," but rather a particularized snapshot that might show broad themes. The characters are essentially caring, "liberal," broad-minded people trying to squeeze all of their ideals into what is necessarily an extremely limiting and oftentimes frustrating enterprise for most human beings -- parenthood. If you live in a big, popular, cosmopolitan city -- for the sake of the culture, diversity and tight-knit neighborliness -- then parking will be a problem. If you submit to your child's wish to have a "theme" birthday -- then you might be harried with providing that, in said city, particularly if you have sneaking suspicion that it's overkill anyway . If you want to be writers, pursuing a life of the mind -- well, that may not neatly coincide with making the kids' breakfast every morning and consistently attending their school functions. The movie simply presents this conundrum -- a picture of the humanity-loving folks among us who turn out to act quite frazzled and nasty when mugged by Reality -- all without judging. Yes, the characters have "bitten off more than they can chew," but haven't so many of us done the same, at least sometimes in some areas of life? It may be dispiriting to watch, but it's real. The message of the movie seems to be that parenthood (particular motherhood) demands sacrifices that some of us make less easily than others -- but that everyone is indeed trying their best. I found Anthony Edwards' husband character quite relatable -- a wee bit unaware, but absolutely loving and supportive in the ways he does understand. This couple (again, like many others) seem almost too similar to one another, thus lacking the balance necessary to make those "ideal" families flow so swimmingly. The living room dance-scene with the stranger almost broke my heart. How many parents have pined over the loss of what they thought was their individuality -- but then also felt guilty and selfish for even thinking that? I could go on... Suffice it to say that Motherhood's rambling unrealism (a kind of Impressionism) calls up some uncomfortable realities of our post-feminist life; it gets under the skin, and cuts a bit close to the bone -- apparently too close for some folks' comfort.

It's not terribly hard to sell water to people in the desert. It's also not very hard to make a movie reflecting on hard lives of mothers and gain respect of mother who watch it. The trick is to make such movie and sell it to people who aren't mothers. This movie failed on that line. Failed miserably. Motherhood is a long (it seems) movie about a mother that has to do it all. She tries to be a great mother, she tries to run errands, she tries to revive a dying career, she tries to take care of her elderly neighbor, and most of all, she tries to find peace of mind and justice in the world seemingly unsuited for mothers like her. If it doesn't sound original to you at this point, it's probably because it's not. And it doesn't get any better. The problem I personally had with the movie is that I can't seem to categorize it. It's not a comedy, it's not a drama, it's not a love story, and it's definitely not a family movie. The only thing that comes to my mind is that it's perhaps a movie made for mothers who probably won't find to watch it, but if they do, it will make them feel better for a day or two. As far as the personality goes, there really isn't any. Thurman's acting is surprisingly flat and annoying; she takes on more than she can chew just to bitch about it in her Carrie Bradshaw-like narrative bits she submits on her blog. She constantly asks the world, why can't a mother be still a person, why must she undergo a partial lobotomy and dedicate her entire life to make another happen. Well, I don't know. And if you think you'll watch the movie and find out, don't bother; no question is answered. There is no motto, no meaningful ending other than 'Gee, I really overreacted at that store today. I'm going to get up in the morning and be a better mother to my children'. I believe the answer could be, don't be mad, but...Nobody forced you to have a kid. Or two, for that matter. Motherhood is extremely disappointing as a movie, especially if you weren't born with an uterus; instead of trying to diminish the fact that some mothers are indeed a little psycho, it creates even a bigger gap between the men and the women, between the fathers and the mothers.