Movie & DVD Reviews

Now on DVD: Motherhood - A Day in the Life of a Mom

Author: MovieGuide.org

"Motherhood" movie trailer

Release Date: October 22nd, 2009
Starring: Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, David Schallipp, Mathew Schallipp, Daisy Tahan, and Minnie Driver
Genre: Comedy
Audience: Teenagers and adults
Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Freestyle Releasing
Director: Katherine Dieckmann
Executive Producer: Michael Lesser and Daniel Crown
Producer: Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler
Writer: Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler

Summary:
MOTHERHOOD is the day in the life of a mother who must face the daily struggles to get by and search for meaning in motherhood. MOTHERHOOD is a morally uplifting movie that extols the importance of parenting and making sacrifices, but it has some foul language and a sexual reference, so caution is warranted.

Review:
MOTHERHOOD is a day in the life of Eliza, a mother who must face the daily struggles to persevere and search for meaning in motherhood. Eliza (played by Uma Thurman) starts her day by getting her daughter off to school while taking care of her preschooler. Living in New York, she has to move her parked car before the street sweeper, go to the market, help the invalid woman next door, shop for things needed for her daughter’s sixth birthday later that day, and enter a writing contest before midnight.

Eliza, formerly a magazine writer, wrestles with the contest, which is supposed to be 500 words on “what motherhood means to me.” Throughout her exhausting day (at one point she ends up needing to carry half dozen shopping bags while pushing the bicycle that now has a flat tire), Eliza tries to write the essay. She talks to her friend about motherhood, both the joys and the struggles. Before the party, Eliza feels unloved, unneeded, and wants to drive away somewhere far… like New Jersey. She and her husband connect and have an honest conversation, each talking about the sacrifices they have made for the family, but ultimately the joys of simply being with their children makes all of it worthwhile.

MOTHERHOOD is a small movie, produced on what appears to be a limited budget. There are no car chases and no special effects. Instead, it’s a day in the life of a mother as she looks for meaning, wondering how her daughter could be six years old already, contemplating what happened to her dreams of being a writer, and why her husband doesn’t look at her with “that look” of romance anymore. Uma Thurman is terrific in the lead role, bringing a sense of lightness and comedy to what could come off as being self-pity. Throughout the movie, Eliza clearly shows how much she loves her children and, while she may have not known the price of motherhood at the outset, she knows that all the sacrifices are worth it.

The movie does have some foul language, and Eliza’s friend makes a reference to masturbation, which Eliza blogs about, causing a rift between them. While family is strongly reinforced and the movie loudly and clearly extols the importance of parenting, the characters themselves seem to have no relationship with God. When Eliza is attempting to write about motherhood, she tries a number of cliché phrases that she abandons. One of these is that children are a gift from God. Thus, caution is warranted for MOTHERHOOD, but is morally uplifting and the movie has many charming qualities.

In Brief:
MOTHERHOOD is the day in the life of Eliza, a mother who must face the daily struggles to get by and search for meaning in motherhood. Eliza starts her day by getting her daughter off to school while taking care of her preschooler. Living in New York, she has a busy life managing the struggles of daily living while attempting to enter a writing contest before midnight. Throughout her exhausting day, Eliza wrestles with the contest to write “what motherhood means to me.”

MOTHERHOOD is a small movie about a day in the life of a mother as she looks for meaning. She wonders how her daughter could be six years old already. She also contemplates what happened to her dreams of being a writer and why her husband doesn’t look at her with “that look” of romance any more. The movie does have some foul language, and there is a lewd reference. When Eliza is attempting to write about motherhood, she rejects the idea that children are a gift from God as too cliché. Despite this, the movie is morally uplifting. It extols the importance of parenting and making sacrifices.

Content: (what the ratings mean)
Very strong moral worldview highlighting struggles but also the importance of parenting, including making sacrifices for the good of family; 11 obscenities and five profanities; no violence; no sexual content but discussion of self abuse; no nudity; no alcohol; smoking and a verbal reference to marijuana; and, protagonist rejects a religious reference about God as being too cliché.

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