Mother of George

Mother of George begins with a traditional African wedding ceremony which takes place in New York City. The bride and groom are toasted with wishes for a baby boy in the near future which will be named George, in accordance with the groom's mother's wishes. After a prolonged period, the hopeful mother to be does not conceive and she attempts various methods to become pregnant. After more time passes, she visits a fertility specialist, but her husband refuses to be checked out by American doctors. Her mother in law tells her that she should allow her husband a mistress in order to have a child. This idea does not go well, nor the next one of having his brother try to father a baby with her. The movie moves slowly, and while the acting is solid throughout, and the clothing beautiful, I was bored by the time it finished.

Adenike and Ayodele, a Nigerian couple living in Brooklyn, are having trouble conceiving a child - a problem that defies cultural expectations and leads Adenike to make a shocking decision that could either save or destroy her family.

I saw this movie last night and it still resonates powerfully with me a day later. The story of a Nigerian immigrant newlywed couple and their travails in getting pregnant, there are five things that set that distinguish this film and make it so worth watching: - The lead performances are exceptional. The Cesar winning actor Issach De Bankolé is always good and his wife, played by American-Zimbabwean Danai Gurira, is pitch perfect as a tradition-bound young woman struggling to balance custom and familial obligation with a new country/culture and her own budding ambitions.

• The pacing of the film is mannered and deliberative, giving the audience a chance to take in the consuming nature of the couple's struggle to have a baby. More European than Hollywood in its timing, the pacing works especially as an antidote to the rapid paced Nollywood films covering similar ground.

• The use of color in the film, both through cinematography and wardrobe, is both stunning and meaningful. The colors correspond to the Orishas or Youban Gods that slyly provide a subtext and foreshadowing of plot that may be unfamiliar to American audiences, but clever and refreshing to any who have been exposed to the Afro-Caribbean religions for which they are central. Just as Orisha symbols has long been integrated into Catholicism and mainstream culture in places like the Dominican Republic and Cuba (for example, it's the bases of the colorful costumes used by showcases at Havana's Tropicana -- the archetype and bases for Las Vegas), they are hidden in plain sight in this film. It's a wonderful added dimension to the film.

• The characters are beautifully realized. The husband's mother, brother, and brother's girl friend are all complicit in the wife's struggles to have a child and each have their own complex character strengths and flaws. While the dialogue is a bit fallow in places, the characters themselves are not.

• The sexuality of the film was portrayed in capturing a range of emotions -- from martial obligation, to lust and true love. Rarely do we get to see such a range in a film, and rarer still is it captured in a movie by and about Black characters.

Definitely worth seeing.

Just saw Mother of George at Sundance. Movie tells a good story, spiced with ethnical flavor, colorful dresses and way too many close ups. The actors are very good, especially Yaya Alafia. She conveys the naivety of the character and her tortuous decisions. I think that the storytelling needed some faster pace. Many side tales shown in excruciating detail detract from the main thrust. The cinematographer has overdone the close ups and fade aways out of focus. And what is it with starting scenes focusing away from the action (a foot here, a finger there) and letting the audience guess what is going on from noise alone? The best scene, when Ayodele learns the truth about his son, is one time when fading of view and sound are truly effective. Many of the other seem contrived.

The film explores the layers of what it means to start a new family which remains a part of a larger community matrix. How much independence is necessary for the nuclear unit? To what extent do other relatives play within matters internal to the marriage. Moreover there is the center of the kernel, which is how does one remember to love oneself while being powerfully in love. The film provides great food for thought at a multitude of levels.

Mother of George (2013) was directed by Andrew Dosunmu. It stars the lovely Danai Gurira as Adenike Balogun, newly married to Ayodele Balogun (Isaach De Bankolé). Although the setting is Brooklyn, we're shown that the old ways brought over from Nigeria still have a profound effect on people's behavior.

The title of the movie, "Mother of George," is realistic. As much as the young couple love each other, they are under the spell of George's mother, who controls many aspects of their life and their destiny.

The central plot theme is that, for whatever reason, Adenike doesn't conceive. This is never easy for any couple, but it's particularly difficult in the Nigerian culture, where a woman is supposed to conceive quickly, and often.

This is an amazing film, suspenseful, thoughtful, and colorful. We saw it at Rochester's wonderful Little Theatre. You'll lose some of the sense of the neighborhood and the costumes on the small screen, but it will work well enough to definitely be worth seeing.