The work of a mother is not an easy task, especially when you have a child who does not help things much to go well; and the cinema has always been there to make it noticeable. The seventh art also allows us to demystify and see motherhood through various lenses and filters, in some cases more realistic and suffering and in others pleasant and carefree, everything depends on the point of view of the creators.
For this reason, the world of cinema offers us films in which we can verify that, when it comes to children, not everything is said and done. The relationships between mothers and children are often affected by external factors, especially for not being how the world wants a mother to be. For example, a topic not widely discussed on the giant screen is that of mothers who decide to see their lives affected by their children because they believe that leaving their family routine can harm them, postponing their own happiness.
There are mothers in the movies (and real life) for all tastes. Of the good, bad, selfless, possessive, adoptive or those who have lost a child. So if you want to spend your day (or any other) with your mother and get excited and, above all, know that many things she thinks or happens to her, are not just her thing, I leave you a very personal selection of movies to enjoy them together.
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1. “Parallel Mother” by Pedro Almodóvar (2021)
I start this list with the most recent film by maestro Almodóvar: “Parallel Mothers” that plays at being a melodrama with the soul of a thriller, for the way it addresses how the relationship between two women who have given birth on the same day evolves, Janis (Penelope Cruz) and Ana who coincide in the same hospital room. They are both single and accidentally got pregnant. Middle-aged Janis is unrepentant and longs to be a mother, and the other, Ana, is a teenager who is scared and regretful of being a mother. The few words that cross in those hours will create a special bond between the two that will be complicated in the future. It can be seen on Netflix.
2. “A Possible Dream” by John Lee Hancock (2009)
Sandra Bullock stars in “The blind side”. She is a mother who adopts a black teenager to rescue him from the street. Micheal Oher, integrates in a short time, and with the help of a typical white family from the suburbs of the United States, he goes ahead to become a professional football player. It is a hard story to believe, but it is based on real life. This mother is a clear example that adoption is a great option to truly save someone. if she wants. Available on HBO Max.
3. “We need to talk about Kevin” by Lynne Ramsay (2011)
This good suspenseful drama introduces us to the great Tilda Swinton (Eve) as Kevin’s mother, an author and editor of travel guides, and Franklin (John C. Reilly), an advertising photographer who decide, despite doubts, to have their first child in their late forties. This is how Kevin will be born, a boy who will complicate his life to unsuspected limits, struggling to come to terms with his son and the murders he has committed. We are left with a question in the air, should mothers forgive everything? It can be seen on FilmIn.
4. James Cameron’s Terminator 2 (1991)
Terminator 2 is one of the great science fiction films of all time. Among his virtues are: the direction of the great James Cameron; the presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger; the best special effects of the time; and the creation of the character of the most seasoned mother in the history of cinema, played by Linda Hamilton. She is a mother who gathers her courage and is willing to destroy a cyborg who traveled from the future to kill her son, mothers who would do whatever it takes to protect their children, will surely feel identified. Available on Netflix.
5. “The room” of Lenny Abrahamson (2015)
Room is another thriller where we see Jack, a five-year-old boy, whose room he lives in is the whole world for him. That room is home to Jack, while for his mother (Brie Larson) It is the prison where she has been locked up for seven years, kidnapped since she was nineteen. With great ingenuity, the young woman has created a life for her son in that small space, and her love for him is the only thing that allows her to endure the unbearable. But as Jack’s curiosity mounts, along with his mother’s despair, knowing the room won’t be able to hold both for much longer, then the inevitable happens. Available on Netflix.
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6. “Lady Bird” by Greta Gerwig (2017)
If a mother has successfully passed the first years of her child’s life, surely she will be able to face it, or not? another of the moments in which she will have to put herself to the test: adolescence. In this good film we see the relationship between a mother and her teenage daughter, in which daily conflicts are not lacking, but in which the unbreakable bond of love that unites them is also clearly seen. Great job by Saoirse Ronan as Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson and Laurie Metcalf as Marion, his mother. It can be seen on Apple TV +.
7. Steven Soderbergh’s “Erin Brockovich” (2000)
Tape also based on real life with Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich, an unconventional and armed mother who, in her quest to provide for her children, lands a job at a law firm. From there she starts a personal crusade against an energy company that pollutes the drinking water of the town where she lives. Roberts’s character surely served as an inspiration for many single mothers who raise their children with an unwavering sense of struggle and determination. Available on Movistar Plus and Claro TV.
8. Todd Haynes’ “Carol” (2016)
In the New York of the 1950s, a young fashion store worker and an elegant and sophisticated woman, who lives immersed in a marriage in which she does not find happiness, strike up a friendship that will give way to a growing mutual attraction. that ends in a lesbian relationship with complicated consequences for the lives of both, mainly in the life of Carol (the sensational Cate Blanchett) that due to this type of love the doors are closed to him to be able to take care of his daughter. It can be seen on Amazon Prime Video.
9. More Than Mothers by Cindy Chupack (2019)
Carol (Angela Bassett), Gillian (Patricia Arquette), and Helen (Felicity Huffman)), lifelong friends, feel marginalized and forgotten by their adult children on Mother’s Day. They go to New York to see them and there they discover that they have to change something in their lives, both them and them. The adventure becomes an inner journey, in which they must redefine their relationship with children, friends, partners and, most importantly, themselves. To spend a good Sunday at home with your mother. Available on Netflix.
10. All About My Mother by Pedro Amodóvar (1999)
And we close this very subjective list with another one from the Manchego genius. Here Almodóvar introduces us to Manuela (an unforgettable Cecilia Roth) as a single mother of a teenager named Esteban, who is killed by a car on his 17th birthday, on his way home from the theater. She will then start looking for Esteban’s father in Barcelona, who is now a transvestite, to tell him what happened. They accompany Roth, Marisa Paredes, Penélope Cruz, Candela Peña, Antonia San Juan, Rosa Maria Sardà, Fernando Fernán-Gómez, Fernando Guillén, Toni Cantó, Eloy Azorín, Carlos Lozano in one of my all-time favorite films. See it on Netflix.
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