MOTHERHOOD MOVIE REVIEW
I recently got a chance to attend a screening for Motherhood which depicts the day of a mother, Eliza (Uma Thurman) as she tries to get ready for her daughter's party while also trying to find a way to balance her own life.
When I went into the movie, I was expecting to watch a fun, enjoyable movie about the tribulations of being a mother, but instead the movie left me thinking about three things 1) I'm so glad I don't have kids, 2) I'm not sure I want to have kids now, 3) if I do end up getting kids, Lord help me from becoming like Eliza.
Now, I'm not saying that motherhood is easy, but it was really hard to relate to Eliza because she was just overwhelmed all the time and it didn't really feel that it was coming from her being a mother, but more because of her character flaws.
Her husband (Anthony Edwards) was pretty absent throughout the film and came off as a real tool, except in the last scene of the film, which in my eyes was not enough to redeem him.
The only character that I actually enjoyed was Eliza's friend Sheila (Minnie Driver). Although she's not a major character, I had fun watching her scenes.
The story was centered on Eliza trying to get through the day and getting everything ready for the party as more and more things get in her way, including a film shoot in front of her building, which moves her parked car a few blocks away forcing her to go do her all her shopping on a bike. A lot of the scenes made me cringe, I found myself wanting to shake Eliza in order for her to get a grip.
And of course, in the midst of all this, Eliza is also a mom blogger. She usually tries to find any small amount of time she can to write and of course on that specific day she decides to enter a contest ran by a parenting magazine. All she needs to do is write a 500 words answer to the question, "What Does Motherhood Mean to Me?" So in addition to everything else she has to do, Eliza needs to find time for that as well, which actually wasn't a part that bothered me. I found myself rooting for her to get it done.
Even though, I understand that the point of the movie was to show how hard motherhood is but that it is also rewarding, I just wish that Eliza had been a stronger character and someone that mothers can look up to or that can inspire you.
I usually enjoy this type of movie, but I just couldn't get into this one. So if you're thinking of watching Motherhood, I would recommend you wait to seen it on TV (or even a rental if you really can't wait).
Title: MOTHERHOOD
Director: Katherine Dieckmann
Cast: Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, and Minnie Driver
Synopsis: Eliza Welch (Thurman) is a former fiction writer-turned-mom-blogger with her own site, "The Bjorn Identity." Putting her deeper creative ambitions on hold to raise her two children, Eliza lives and works in two rent-stabilized apartments in a walk-up tenement building smack in the middle of an otherwise upscale Greenwich Village. Eliza's good-natured but absent-minded husband (Edwards) seems tuned out to his wife's conflicts, not to mention basic domestic reality, while her best friend Sheila (Minnie Driver) understands this – and Eliza -- all too well.
