“Mother and Child” is kind of a dopey title, and one you don’t see until the end of the movie (which gives off the impression that the filmmakers behind the production think it’s kind of dopey too), but it’s also incredibly apt. Even though Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (director of “Babel”) produced “Mother and Child,” it’s a relatively small-scale drama, free of the grandiose narrative crisscrossing that has become Inarritu’s bread and butter. There are three stories, at first only tenuously connected and then more substantially linked, all about mothers. And children. That’s it.
The movie opens in 1974, with a young girl having sex for the first time. This sexual encounter leads to a child being born. (And if you’re raising your eyebrow at this, we were too. A hoary old Hollywood cliche, reinforced even in modern movies like “Juno,” is that if you have sex without a condom, without fail, you will get pregnant. This is a weird and lazy storytelling trope but also an oddly sexist one, as the female character is “punished” for being sexually active. But don’t worry, the movie redeems itself. This is a comparatively slight stumble.) We then flash forward several decades, and the young girl has turned into the very womanly Annette Bening (who looks dynamite and refreshingly plastic surgery-free). Bening’s character is unmarried, cares for her elderly mother and is struck with nagging thoughts about her daughter, who she gave up for adoption.
The child that Annette gave up for adoption has grown up to become the flinty Naomi Watts, a sharp Los Angeles attorney who has recently taken a position at a firm run by Samuel L. Jackson, who doesn’t once shout or curse or awkwardly wear an eye patch (whew!). Her upbringing has led her to be a determined, alienating soul. She quickly starts an affair with Jackson while also seducing the square-jawed yuppie that lives in her apartment building (played gamely by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” Marc Blucas). She remains compelling despite her occasional slip into cartoonish villainy.
Storyline 3 concerns the adorable Kerry Washington as a pastry chef who is happily married but unhappily infertile. She is on a desperate search for a baby, interviewing prospective mothers with the help of a nun played by Cherry Jones. When her yuppie husband loses interest in raising another person’s child, he splits, leaving her to continue the quest on her own.
The movie is long (probably too long), and the three sections of the movie take their sweet time culminating in some unexpected and emotionally satisfying ways. Each subplot is stuffed with their own set of mini-conflicts and asides (Annette is wooed by her paunchy coworker played by Jimmy Smits; Kerry clashes with her mother; Naomi cuts and runs from her boss and lovers). Sometimes it gets to be a bit much. But no matter how perilously close the movie gets to melodrama, it knows when to hang back, instead focusing on the growth (and pain) of the characters, which grounds us.
Revealing the way in which the characters and storylines intersect would be a disservice to the movie, which, at its least compelling, is still anchored by strong performances from the cast. It’s no surprise that the three leads are wholly captivating (well, maybe it’s a surprise that Kerry Washington is so good), but what writer-director Rodrigo Garcia, a veteran of many of HBO’s best original series, does spectacularly is fill in the cast with wonderful actors. Elizabeth Pena, David Morse, Amy Brenneman, Tatyana Ali and S. Epatha Merkerson all show up for brief scenes but really give it their all, lending the movie a rich texture. (Also adding texture, Xavier Perez Grobet’s cool, locked off cinematography.)
If there’s a problem with “Mother and Child,” besides its occasional soap opera-ness, is that the various threads of the story are a little too tidily wrapped up in the film’s third act. At least once in the movie’s last third you’ll ask yourself, Really? even if you’re wiping away a tear or two.
For a movie that seems to take great pride peeling back the layers of the messy interpersonal relationships we all find ourselves in, there’s a certain amount of simplicity to the film’s conclusion. Is it both heartwarming and heartbreaking in some pretty genuine ways? Yes, it is. But like most of “Mother and Child,” there are enough quietly affecting, genuinely human moments that offset the broader aspects of the story. Or maybe it’s just that we’re a sucker for any movie, made for adults and filled with actors this good and characters this complex. Refreshingly, there’s not a superhero in the bunch. [B+]
–Written by Drew
