Bringing Up Bobby

Famke Janssen has managed to put all of the elements of a great independent movie together here but somehow the chemistry never grabs you really hard. Milla Jovovich's character is somebody who thinks they understand the American Dream from watching TV and from the movies that she is often quoting. The reality in America however is that the "American Dream" is much more complicated than she ever imagined. Milla Jovovich and Spencer List are very convincing as the mother and son duo and the portrayal of their relationship is what carries the movie. Pullamn does well but is careful not to grab the attention away from the two main characters. The colours and costumes stand out against the bleak Oklahoma backdrop. It is a good movie and it is easy to watch. It is not the sort of movie that will interest people who do not regularly watch small independent movies.

A stab at a comedy mingled with drama. It doesn't entirely work, even if the actors at work do try their best (even if it doesn't feel like that at times). The story being told from the point of view of Milla is interesting. It might have been more interesting, if we'd seen the whole thing through the eyes of the son. There are times when you wonder what is going on there.

Apart from that you have a stellar cast together. Which of course might have to do with the fact, that Famke Jansen is directing. Not a bad try for a movie and I'm sure the script did sound great too. The making it into a movie process, is entirely different of course and there are quite a lot of flaws to be found here (character but also plot wise). A nice little movie then

Don't get me wrong, this movie isn't horrible, it's just not excellent the way it should be. The film starts out really great, Milla is a laugh out loud funny con artist from the Ukraine who is just trying to make ends meet with her son in America, then it turns into a more dramatic film where a woman is trying to get her son back, to me it seems like both of these plots are great but together in the same film it didn't work for me, I think as individual film they would be excellent.

The saving grace is Milla Jovovich, she is terrific in absolutely everything, and she is just exceptional in this, she is funny, lovable and for most of the film you are rooting for her, I hope she continues to do funnier roles such as these as she really suits them.

Also the kid in the movie is definitely worth mentioning, child actors are really impressive these days. The opening song sung by Milla is one of the best parts of the film, so basically no highs or lows, just very one dimensional. A tad disappointing. :(

Synopsis looked promising. But fell terribly flat of all expectations. We only watched it to the end hoping for something redeeming. Listed as a comedy, but not one thing comically amusing. It had the potential to be a realistic touching and poignant movie of a failing mother having to make a choice between staying with her son, or letting foster parents raise him. But her failings are so over the top as to be unbelievable. This can be acceptable if it was farcically funny... but it is not... just painful in the way that she raises her son in a way that he can do no wrong even though that is all he does is wrong. The mother's accent is so fake that I thought it was part of her shtick. The actress, though born in Kiev does not have an accent in interviews, so had to create this one, but it just does not ring true. This is about as low as I'd rate any movie that I watched all the way through.

I saw this movie in Savannah at the Film Festival. I really enjoyed this movie from start to finish. After the movie the Director did a Q&A which answered the few problems I had to the film which I can be forgiving for. It starts out with a foreign feel with lots of natural lighting and some poor sound clips taking the performance away from the actors. But as the movie progresses and you build a relationship with the characters the movie gets more and more precious. The director was very fortunate to have the actors and actresses to work with for her first film as a director. Milla's performance really is outstanding throughout telling you the story of her travels and struggles to win her boy back.