MOTHER
A Film Review by Brian Takeshita
Rating: *** out of ****
I like movies with Albert Brooks, and I really like movies directed and written by Albert Brooks. LOST IN AMERICA and DEFENDING YOUR LIFE are two of my favorite comedies. His humor is of a kind that is not very prevalent in movies today, inundated as we are with films which revel in their aim toward the lowest common denominator. You will rarely see any slapstick in an Albert Brooks film, while the dialog will not be as oppressive as in some of the independent "talk films" which are finding their way into theaters. The situations in which his characters find themselves are ones we can often identify with, but even if we can't, Brooks has the talent to make them comfortable, and therefore we laugh. Teenagers and Jim Carrey fans probably won't find an Albert Brooks movie very funny, but people who look for more than what we could find on television probably will. Put simply, Brooks' comedy is intelligent.
MOTHER is Albert Brooks' latest film, and it does not disappoint. Brooks plays John Henderson, a middle-aged science fiction writer just coming off his second divorce. He makes an attempt at dating, but fails miserably. He then has dinner with his brother Jeff (Rob Morrow), a successful sports agent who seems to live the ideal life. Jeff has a good job, a loving family, and most of all, a warm relationship with their mother Beatrice (Debbie Reynolds). After dinner, John witnesses a telephone conversation between Jeff and Beatrice, and is at the same time amazed and sickened by how hunky-dory the dialog is. In comparison, Beatrice always hints at a fault in John and his career every time she talks with him, and John gives it right back to her. At the end of one of their conversations where Beatrice has just picked apart John's life, she says, "I love you," and John replies with, "I know you think you do." The thing is, Beatrice is not overt with her criticisms, but instead gives them in that mothering way which is tantamount to nit-picking and guilt loading. It's the kind that goes something like, "Yes, dear, I think you do that wonderfully, BUT...." It seems as though nothing he does makes her happy. There's always the big but.
John believes that his mother is somehow connected to his failed relationships with women, either because of his flawed self-esteem caused by his need for validation, or perhaps because he tends to unconsciously seek out women who remind him of his mother in an oedipal manner. He comes to the conclusion that since his problems are rooted in his boyhood home, he should move back in with his mother for a while just to see what kinds of feelings come out, and by that be able to sort out why his life is the way it is. "A great experiment", he calls it.
Brooks' own brand of humor really shines in this film, especially in the interaction John has with his mother. There's a scene where John has just arrived at his mother's house, and after having driven from Los Angeles to Sausalito, and having explained to his mother about the "great experiment", Beatrice asks, "Now explain to me again why you don't want to stay at a hotel." She still doesn't get it, and it is absolutely hilarious. In the same scene, we get little glances at the life his mother leads when she tries to feed him food that is no longer fresh. She apparently buys in great quantities and refrigerates it until the lettuce is wilted and the sherbet is iced over. When John points out the ice on the sherbet, Beatrice tells him not to worry about the protective glaze. "You've named the ice?" asks John. He's also surprised at the variety of items Beatrice keeps in the refrigerator, such as a twenty-pound block of cheese. "The freezer was a good invention," says John, "but it's not supposed to be used for everything. That's why it's smaller than the refrigerator." It's something most of us find strangely familiar.
Brooks is also a master at employing the non sequitur. For example, in DEFENDING YOUR LIFE, his and Meryl Streep's characters are in a comedy club having a discussion. When they're finished and walk out, Brooks cuts to the comic on stage who is just at the point of delivering his punch line, "And so the moral is, if you have to fart, go outside!" You don't know what the joke was because you couldn't hear him during the entire scene, but I must have laughed for the next five minutes, it seemed so out of context. In this film, Brooks uses the same trick a couple of times to open or close a scene. I don't want to give them away, but suffice it to say they work just as well as they have in the past.
John's purpose for staying with his mother is to learn, and we as the audience learn right along with him. His mother is not the fascinating type to begin with, but as John spends more time with her, we learn things about her personality and her lifestyle that give her depth. Watching the character of Beatrice unfold is every bit as enjoyable as the humor that accompanies it each step of the way.
On screen, Brooks does an excellent job playing this kind of character: You get the feeling he often believes he is the only sane person in an insane world. In a way, he's very much like Yosarian of CATCH-22, expect with something of an attitude. Casting Debbie Reynolds as Beatrice is perfect. She assumes the part with ease, even moving and speaking a little slowly, and is just so adorable it's hard to get mad at her character. This only helps the audience to share the frustration John feels when dealing with her. As his first choice, Brooks originally wanted to lure Nancy Reagan out from her acting retirement to play Beatrice, but the former actress and first lady could not leave her husband, who was beginning to show symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. That may be just as well, since Reynolds lends a softness to the character which enhances it immensely. Rob Morrow also does a good job at playing the younger brother who has always been mother's favorite and, for all his success in his job and family, is slowly exposed as a mama's boy.
The only things that hold this movie back from being better are a couple of plot holes. A solid connection is not really made between John's troubles and his reasons for living with his mother. Additionally, the end results of the experiment do not necessarily jibe with the stated goals, and although this may have been sloppy screenwriting, how can you be mad at the guy who also wrote this?:
Beatrice: You must think I'm some kind of moron. John: No, I think your someone who thinks I'm a moron. Beatrice: Well, it takes one to know one.
Review posted December 4, 1997
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