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The Mother main poster

The Mother

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6.0/10 • 60

2003-11-141h 52m

DramaRomance

It can take a lifetime to feel alive.

A grandmother has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.

Directors
Roger Michell
Writters
Hanif Kureishi
Editors
Hanif Kureishi, Nicolas Gaster

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Anne Reid

    Anne Reid

    May

  2. Daniel Craig

    Daniel Craig

    Darren

  3. Peter Vaughan

    Peter Vaughan

    Toots

  4. Steven Mackintosh

    Steven Mackintosh

    Bobby

  5. Cathryn Bradshaw

    Cathryn Bradshaw

    Paula

  6. Anna Wilson-Jones

    Anna Wilson-Jones

    Helen

  7. Danira Gović

    Danira Gović

    Au Pair

  8. Izabella Telezynska

    Izabella Telezynska

    Polish Cleaner

  9. Oliver Ford Davies

    Oliver Ford Davies

    Bruce

Reviews1

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CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Sep 3, 2023

6/10

This is quite a tough film to watch. Not so much because of the subject matter, but because you just know there is an inevitability about the conclusion which is going to leave everyone damaged! Anne Reid is good as the eponymous character ("Mary") who loses her husband and finds that she just cannot go home. She spends her time between her son and his family and with her daughter and her young son. The former is having his house extended, and so has employed "Darren" (Daniel Craig) - who just happens to be the married boyfriend of her daughter "Paula" (Cathryn Bradshaw). Lonely and craving human companionship, "Mary" gradually becomes infatuated with this hunky tradesman, despite him being half her age, and he is all too willing to help her out. Obviously, her family find out and that's when it all goes awry. It's also when the plot heads full speed into melodrama. This already pretty dysfunctional family sees the wheels come off and the nuanced, emotional and sensitive elements are jettisoned for anger and an sense of the truly unpleasant and course develops. Reid and Craig have a couple of decent scenes together, but for the most part the remaining cast are all pretty lacklustre and the longer it goes on, the more desperate it seems to shock - for the sake of it. The age-gap relationship/sex storyline could have delivered something more here had director Roger Michell not just chickened out.

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  • The Mother poster
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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$2,500,000.00
Revenue
$1,062,253.00
Keywords
parent child relationshiplove affairolder woman younger man relationship