| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
B |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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A Good Time
by Jason T (movies profile)
Oct 17, 2004
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
"Mother" isn't very visual. The biggest action scene is a Albert Brooks spitting out some orange shubert his mother, Debbie Reynolds, wants him to taste. "Mother" isn't very lively. There are about about five characters and of the five, Brooks and Reynolds get the most screen time. Lisa Kudrow gets a cameo as a date from hell. "Mother" is, on the other hand, extremley funny. Funny because it relies on it's fabulous screenplay, and why not? It was penned by none other then Mr. Albert Brooks himself. It won the New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics awards for Best Screenplay of 1996. Why does the script work? Because this is a mother and son relationship many middle-aged men can actually relate to. I am only 21, but I saw things in Debbie Reynolds I see a lot in my own grandmother. She's over-cautious, she nags when she doesn't think she is, and she knows how to embarras you really easily. Take, for example, when Brooks takes her to the GAP. He tells the salesperson he wants new underwear. Before the sales person can respond, "mother" butts in and explains it's because he's living with her he needs the extra briefs, and that he also doing some experiement. These are the kinds of small peeving things parents do to their kids without reconsile. Later, in a pet shop and in the funniest scene to me, we see Reynolds telling the manager her son is going through a divorce. "Actually, it's his second divorce." Hilarious. I really enjoyed this film because it was a simple story about simple people and yet we get a lot of laughs. Not only is Albert Brooks in top form again, Debbie Reynolds is a wonderful sport in the role of the kind but ashamed mother. She doesn't go over the top yet she's not suttle either. "Mother" is a B movie. It gets all B's. Why not all A's? Mainly because I think it COULD actually have gone over the top a little more then half way. It's a funny movie but it could have been way funnier. I liked how with only two people on the screen most of the time my attention was still there. These are real people, not Hollywood people. The cliche'd ending is okay since the dialogue is some of the wittiest comedy of recent years. But "Mother" feels empty at the end. The director and Brooks could have done some more fun things with Brooks and Reynolds but they avoided it. That's okay to do when your goal is to make people laugh, and "Mother" made me laugh. |
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