In many ways Mothers and Daughters should have been a runaway chick flick hit. It had a bevy of very talented and beautiful actresses in the lead roles and all have chops for days. A cast that featured two Oscar winners and one Oscar nominee should have been near perfect. However the film is more mellow-drama than flat out drama and felt little more than a television “movie of the week.”
The performances were well above adequate, but the storylines were, perhaps, too many to focus on properly. Thematically too, the film could have been problematic. Daughters and mothers do have very prickly relationships, quite possibly the film hit too close to home for the females in the audience.
Another problem could have been a lack of eye candy for the ladies. Christopher Backus (who has been rocking it as Rick in Showtimes’ Roadies and is the real-life spouse of Mira Sorvino) was not onscreen for long at all. The same fate befell Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. regular Luke Mitchell. (Not only does Mitchell have even less screen time than Backus, his character turns out to be bit of a rotter.)
Mothers and Daughters is an anthology film, which means several storylines, or vignettes are meant to be linked by a common thread. The movie starts with Rigby (Selma Blair) photographing singer Nelson Quinn.
She is a professional photographer who specializes in musicians. Rigby writes a letter to her mother about her youth and discovery of passion for picture taking. (Natalie Burn plays the young Rigby’s mother.)
Mira Sorvino’s character Georgina is seen next with her boyfriend Sebastian. Sharon Stone plays a fashion magnate whose daughter has more in common with Georgina than with her own mother.
Courteney Cox and Christina Ricci have relationship that feels like the female version of Jack Nicholson’s upbringing.
Susan Sarandon plays opposite her real-life daughter Eva Amurri Martino in a “blink and you’ll miss it” cameo. Although Ms. Sarandon rocks her few seconds on camera.
Directed by Paul Duddridge and Nigel Levy (Duddridge provided concept that Paige Cameron based the screenplay on.) the film tries to cram too much drama into a 90 minute time frame. But for all the different storylines the overall feeling of the film’s tone is tepid versus tragic.
Blair (A personal favorite since “discovering her” in “Hellboy.”) has an interesting arc and plays a character we can get behind. Actually all the characters are “likable” per se but none of them get enough screen time for the audience to really connect with them.
Mothers and Daughters is, in essence, a drawing room drama. One heavy with dialogue and, except for the Cox/Ricci storyline, pretty normal.
A woman has the child she gave up for adoption get in contact with her. Another gets pregnant and must decide if she wants an abortion or not. Yet another learns something about her mother that shakes her to the core.
Despite having performers who are brilliant at their craft, each vignette spends too little time on the respective storylines. We never really get a chance to warm to any of the characters.
It is Rigby that we really connect with but that may well be down to her particular storyline and Blair’s portrayal of a woman who lost touch with her mother.
This is not a bad film, far from it, it is just not a great one. At 90 minutes it is not overly long nor is it boring. The pace is a little up and down, mostly down, but overall it still entertains.
There are moments where the viewer may need to grab for the tissue box, but not many.
Anthology films, when done properly, like “Love Actually” for instance, are good value for money. However, this film just does not quite deliver, even with such a capable cast.
On the bright side, Sharon Stone looks brilliant and proves that she can still act, despite the travesty of her role in Agent X. Blair is endearing, as is Sorvino.
Mothers and Daughters is a solid 3 star film. Not bad, nowhere near it, but nothing to prompt repeated viewings either. The film is streaming on Netflix right now. Head on over and check it out. Until then take a look at the trailer below.
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