Maman mode d'emploi

Eliza Welsh is what one of the characters in "Motherhood" refers to derisively as an "urban mom." That is to say a young woman who lives in an upscale part of town (in this case, Greenwich Village), has a hoard of New Age-y mom friends who obsess over the ins-and-outs of successful childrearing, and herself hosts a blog dedicated to - what else? - how to survive the rigors of young motherhood without sacrificing one's identity as a woman, as a wife and as an individual. It's a battle that Eliza seems to be losing at the moment, but at least she's giving it the old college try.

Written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann, this seriocomic tale takes place on the day before Eliza's oldest child is to turn six. Filled with mixed emotions at the event and saddled with a husband (Anthony Edwards) who seems more focused on his own needs than those of his wife, Eliza struggles with arranging a birthday party, dodging parking tickets, coping with a studio-shoot on her street, looking out for her elderly neighbor, and raising a toddler - all while trying to carve out a little time for herself to write and to do all the things adults (those without children, at least) normally do in the course of their days.

Dieckmann's screenplay is filled with both poignancy and humor as it deftly explores the life of this harried mother. Uma Thurman, in a tour-de-force performance, captures both the manic energy and utter exhaustion of the nonstop merry-go-round that her character finds herself riding on; and she is fully supported by Edwards as her husband, Minnie Driver as her closest girlfriend, and Arjun Fupta ("Nurse Jackie") as a sexy delivery boy who, for a brief moment at least, allows Eliza to let her hair down a bit and to see the heart of the vibrant, sexy, carefree woman that still beats beneath all the motherly obsessions and concerns.

Although it's ultimately a bit too slight in the drama department for it to rise much above the level of a bemusing curiosity, "Motherhood" still has some valid insights to make about its subject.

This film is just awful. How did they get all this actors to get involved is beyond me. Uma Thurman is a fine actress, but there was no way she could save this. Awful script, lousy directing and uninteresting characters.

If you make the mistake of reading this movie's own description, you go into it thinking that you're going to find a light-hearted, funny account of a mother trying to pull off the ultimate birthday party. The early parts of the movie seem to reinforce this, especially the encounter with the snooty neighbour and daughter who go on and on about the fabulous birthday party they had pulled off. So, you think this is going to turn into a competition to make a better birthday party. But from that point on, any sense of fun in this movie just absolutely disappears, and never reappears. This becomes a sombre movie, that really focuses more on Eliza's disillusionment with her life, her husband, the sacrifices she had to make, etc., etc. Boo hoo. You had to sacrifice something for the sake of your children and things didn't turn out exactly the way you had hoped and dreamed they would. Well, Eliza, welcome to real life. Sometimes we sacrifice and change direction for the sake of our kids. It's called parenthood - or in Eliza's case, "Motherhood."

OK. I didn't like the overall whiny tone of the movie or of Eliza's character. Setting that distaste aside, I have two fundamental problems with this: (a) it wasn't funny or even just humorous, and (b) it wasn't really interesting. There was nothing that made this story seem like a movie should be made out of it. Eliza's car got towed. Wow. Her friend got mad at her because she broke a confidence. Gee. She lost her parking spot. Tell me it ain't so! Gripping stuff. The only thing I felt compelled to watch closely was when Eliza brought the messenger in for a drink of water. You're thinking that "something" is going to happen between the two of them. I liked the way that turned out. Beyond that, the movie's really devoid of substance.

It benefits from having basically likable leads. Uma Thurman and Anthony Edwards are fine. Not a lot of chemistry between them, and the one extended kissing scene between them in the whole movie seemed quite forced and artificial. But they're likable enough. They make it watchable; they don't make it good, though. (3/10)

The way it started I thought it was an amusing parody on the modern PC culture. It was a bit a awkward initially but I was focusing on the parody side. Later into the movie it wavered more on being pointless. It might have been meant to be a character study showing how motherhood and womanhood has changed and evolved for the last few generations. The most meaningful scene I felt was delivered by an older actress who in her statement also described what the intent of the movie might have been all about.

The movie is apparently based off a book written by the director and I have not read it. I cannot say I have been inspired to read it either.

I can relate to this film because being a mom is the hardest job I've ever tackled. This is the story of a difficult day in the life of a stay at home mom who is desperately trying to regain some piece of her identity apart from motherhood. To answer the question raised in one of the other reviews, "Is this motherhood" - Yes, it can be like that, relentless, thankless and exhausting. Personally, I found it refreshing that it was much more realistic than those spotless homes of movie families where nothing is out of place and the husband shares equally in everything family related so that everyone seems to live a perfect existence. I'm sure there are families out there where everyone cooperates and things run smoothly. There are just as many out there that have their serious flaws and unbalanced work loads and people who live right on the border of losing it when the things that go wrong seem to mount up and conspire against you to prevent you from getting even the simple things accomplished.

Maybe the reason some people have a problem with this movie is that it shows more reality than fantasy. Whatever the case, I say, judge for yourself, and see the flaws in humanity as they are. We don't always make the right decisions, sometimes we let each other down, and sometimes we can forgive each other and make things right again.