Exhibit B: Mother
In another example of the "Foreign films get a pass" argument, I give you "Mother". Now don't get me wrong, although it's too slow paced for my taste, it's a decent movie. What I don't understand however is the RAVE reviews it has gotten when it is very much a been there, done that type story and most of the story isn't much better than a languidly paced episode of Law & Order.
The film concerns a mother who is trying to prove that her mentally challenged son is innocent of murder. The boy's mental issue is basically a Memento-like memory issue - he doesn't have the greatest short term memory. While the main actress gives a great performance, most of the other characters are kind of forgettable. I'll get more into it below (WITH SPOILERS) but I'd say that this film is probably a rental.
SPOILERS BELOW
About midway through the film, I started to think about "Primal Fear" and I was sadly not mistaken. Then the ending was a borderline rip-off of "Oldboy". I guess that if you don't know those two films or if they didn't come to mind, you might really enjoy the film. I didn't.
Another issue was that I never really liked the Mother. I was really put off by the scene in which her son sleeps with her and grabs her breast. I feel like critics see something like that and think it is edgy. I just think it's unnecessary and doesn't add anything to the film or the characters. The whole time I was watching a woman who probably wasn't the greatest mother chase down leads and, in the end, it turns out that it was basically her shitty parenting that led to all of this. I guess it gets points for making you sympathize with this woman a bit but I just never really find that to be that laudable. "Das Boot" is interesting because it makes you root for Nazis but that isn't what makes it a great film.
All in all, this just isn't my type of movie. I often have a hard time with slow paced thrillers. More often than not, I think that that is an oxymoron. If you're going to have a slower pace, the characters and their interactions better be strong and I just wasn't buying them in this film. The bit about the mother trying to kill the son when he was five came out of right field. It was an interesting touch but one that I didn't think really affected anything. I just don't think it's quality screenwriting when you can have a bomb like that that can be easily cut from the script and not change anything.
In the end, I think an American remake (should there be one) should have a stronger mother character. Maybe someone who fought tooth and nail to get to the middle class but then it is those same principles that lead her son to murder. I don't know, I'd have to put more thought in it but I think this premise could make for an interesting American story, especially in this time of conservatives with blind anger.
