Motherly

I take a middle position on the rating. Kate is writing a book, stuck in a small farmhouse out in the sticks. Her daughter Beth has just celebrated her ninth birthday, but seems sullen about it. We find that there was a gruesome murder of a child, and Kate and Beth are in the witness protection program, the husband convicted of the murder of the child. We are shown in flashbacks bits and pieces of what happened. Meanwhile, there seems to be sinister things happening around the house. Kate sees danger everywhere, while Beth doesn't, and simply says the house is haunted. The rest of the movie may be standard movie fair, while others may appreciate the bits and twists in it. Most will remember the acting of the Beth character.

This little thriller starts out well, with a mother and daughter sequestered in the countryside--which the latter is growing bored and petulant about, while the former is clearly afraid of whatever they're running from, which we assume is a violent husband/father. Eventually there are intruders, and this home invasion soon changes the dynamic of who did what and who should be afraid of whom. Those factors keep changing, and "Motherly's" plot twists would be decent enough if it didn't make a big mistake. I won't spoil that here, but suffice it to say the script eventually places far too great a burden on the sole child actor, who can't pull it off (no one her age could), and it turns the whole thing ridiculous. The film ends on notes that are both mean-spirited and cheesy, really destroying its modest but real initial potential. It's all decently crafted and acted, and resourceful considering a low budget. But when a plot goes this far off the rails, it takes the whole movie down with it.

This isn't bad. It's just familiar. There's a lot of foreshadowing that was too obvious and took away from the ending. Not awful. Not amazing. It was an average watch for my night on the couch.

The first half was very slow & boring even though the writing, acting & direction are perfectly fine. The second half is pretty good. If you can make it through the first half, then the second half is worth the wait.

Better than I thought it would be. The acting was pretty good all around. However, the storyline was predictable. I knew when I watched the trailer. Just hoping I was wrong.

Still, not bad at all.