L'ombre d'une mère

This is a surprisingly okay film that I caught on Lifetime - okay and Lifetime with regard to movies is usually a contradiction in terms, but not this time. Well-cast and directed with a light touch by Larry Shaw, as well as a halfway decent script, "Mother Knows Best" is both entertaining and absorbing.

Based on a true story, the beautiful and talented Joanna Kerns plays Celeste Cooper, a socialite who doesn't like her daughter's husband. He's an auto mechanic instead of a doctor. So she hires someone to kill him. "I want him shot in the head," she instructs the hit-man.

Kerns really elevates this film with her glamor and no-nonsense line deliveries. She approaches the hit as if she's arranging for a catering job. Christine Elise is her daughter and Grant Show her husband, and both are appealing. David Spielberg is Celeste's henpecked husband. Watching his daughter from afar on her wedding day, he cries and says to Celeste, "She reminds me of you the day we were married." "Shut up, George," his wife says.

Good.

So I caught this movie today on Lifetime, on a rainy Saturday morning. For once, I'm grateful for the bad weather! When I saw the title "Mother Knows Best", with Joanna Kerns no less, I figured it would be some Lifetime movie about a mother taking off her apron and having to deal with obnoxious bratty children. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Celeste Cooper is my idol! Joanna Kerns did an excellent job shedding her "everywoman" image. I was laughing out loud as soon as she placed the ad in her daughter's name. Grant Show and Christine Elise have some chemistry but I found their characters to be stale. Kerns steals the show here, that's for sure! It's funny how the only Lifetime movies that I like are always on at 11am on Saturdays. And those are the Lifetime movies that still run on the channel.

This was tense, it's about an obsessed mother who hates her son-in-law only because he isn't what she wanted him to be. She couldn't face the fact her daughter Laurel was in love with a man who wasn't filthy rich and upper crust. Laurel loved him for who he was and not what he was earning. This film is good to watch on a rainy afternoon. It could've done without the silly background music, because the film is serious and not a comedy.

I loved this movie. It was extremely entertaining, and featured an excellent cast. Joanna Kerns was wicked as Celeste, and Christine Elise was also great as the innocent daughter. If you don't know the plot of this story, here it is.

Joanna Kerns plays Celeste, a rich woman who feels that it's time for her daughter to have a serious relationship. So she places a personal ad in the paper. When a guy, played by Grant Shaw of "Melrose Place", answers the ad, it's love at first sight for him and the daughter, played by Christine Elise. But mother isn't impressed with daughter's new boyfriend, because he is a mechanic, and not a lawyer or a doctor. So she arranges for him to be murdered!

A Great little thriller. I Highly recommend it.

My rating: 8/10

My favorite genre of movies is true crime and this one captures beautifully the reason I enjoy watching them so much. I have seen it many times and could still watch it over and over.

Joanna Kerns plays the role of an overbearing society mother to perfection. The character she plays, Celeste Cooper, has a sense of entitlement and feelings of superiority that leads her into believing she has the right to do anything she wants. Even while plotting the most deceptive and evil schemes, she holds herself with grace and dignity. It's an excellent example of how money and status can warp a person's perception of reality.

The other actors also give quality performances but Kerns is the reason you are likely to never forget this show. I recommend it to everyone, even if you're not a true crime story fanatic like me.