Let's be realistic.

Don't Believe the Hype

A Major Disappointment

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

This was so painful and hard, how a mother can easily give up on her child. It's a piece of her, person another person else! that's really so deep, that Allah gives one a child and another not. it makes me think carefully before getting a baby out to this cruel world.I've really enjoyed this upset movie.

The movie, Mother & Child, is about three women, Lucy, Elizabeth, and Karen, who's stories have to do with being a mother in some way. The film follows the three women and their challenges with adoption and pregnancy. Karen is played by Annette Bening. Karen is a 50- year old who is struggling over giving up her child at the age of 14. She seems to be full of hate and struggles accepting people into her life. Elizabeth is the daughter Karen, whom she gave up at 14, and has never met. Elizabeth is played by Naomi Watts. She is a persistent, controlling, carefree lawyer who just wants to do her own thing. She has a sexual relationship with her boss where she gets pregnant. While giving birth she dies, and her child is left for adoption. Lucy is played by Kerry Washington. She and her husband have been trying for a baby for four years when they decide on adoption. When her husband backs out and leaves her, she decides to continue with the adoption. This scene is very similar to the movie Juno (Reitman, J.) . Where the father is not ready to adopt but the mother is. Lucy still wants to adopt but is heartbroken when the mother backs out. A new baby girl comes up and Lucy adopts her, the baby that Elizabeth has left behind. Karen finds peace in the end with her husband, but becoming a grandmother-figure to Lucy's child, her biological granddaughter. The theme of the film is about a mother's love. The quote used at the end of the movie and the beginning is, "it's the time spent together that counts, not blood" (Garcia, R.). This is true to the film because in the end, all three women dealt with the adoption process and loving a child that is not there, or giving up a child that is their own and still loving it. Lucy struggled when she adopted her new baby. She said that she cannot love her because she is not hers. She felt that someone just handed her a baby and she was not connected. When Lucy's mother stepped in to help her, she told her to step up because she is that child's mother. Lucy learned to love the child as if it were her own. Karen struggled her whole life with giving her child up for adoption; she felt that the world hated her for giving up her baby. She wrote to her daughter every day, and dreamed about her every night. Once she came to terms that what she did nearly 40 years ago was right for her baby, she began to feel love again. We saw her grow as a person.The angle of the camera was excellent. I felt that each shop captured the emotions the characters where feeling. The camera was not just capturing the scene but the expressions and the way the characters felt. There were not significant lighting effects I noticed except for a few. When Karen sleeps with her ex-boyfriend, whom she had the child with; the lighting and scene became blurry; almost as signifying that she should forget the past because it is all a blur from years ago. The producers did an excellent job at connecting the story lines together and becoming one. Although it started out as three separate women struggling separate lives, in the end they were all connected by the love of adoption and being a mother. References Boggs, J. & Petrie, J. (2008). The art of watching films. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Garcia, R. (Director). (2009). Mother and Child (Motion Picture). Reitman, J. (Director). (2007). Juno (Motion Picture).

This movie was a complete surprise to me, I really wasn't sure what to expect when picking this film to view, but with it's all-star cast line-up it looked on the surface like it could be a winner and a winner it was. The storyline is detailed and compelling, 5 minutes into this movie you will be hooked. There are several different elements and segments in this movie that will draw the viewer into the story and make this life journey story a meaningful and appreciated view. For the record, if you read any of my reviews you'll find I do not get into what the movie or story line is about, what I try to relay to you the reader is my opinion of a movie and whether it is worth your time, effort, and money to view, in my humble opinion "Mother and child" is definitely a keeper.

***Alert: May allude to some scenes and themes that could contain what some might deem "spoilers."***As someone else said: "Wow, where do I start?" ... I LOVED this movie. I was not familiar with the director's previous work, but he is definitely on my radar now. The cast was incredible. What a fantastic mix of people. I mean, come on, Samuel L. Jackson, Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Elizabeth Peña, and Jimmy Smits. And those are just the "big" stars. The rest of the cast was equally outstanding. One standout performance was given by the beautiful Kerry Washington. So incredibly powerful.But, what really blew me away about this film was the authenticity of the many themes about life, love, family, children, parenthood, hope, loss and redemption that the director wove together so brilliantly. The screenplay resonated with me on so many levels. The dialogue rang true on so many levels. I'm sorry to say I don't know her name, but the actress who portrayed Washington's mother was incredible, too. The monologue she delivered during the scene where her daughter is struggling with new motherhood is golden. She delivered her lines with the authenticity of a woman who has lived a full and rich life. Just dynamite. I can't say more. Loved her!The funny story is that I had already watched this movie on cable alone, but re- ordered it through Netflix to see if my husband might be interested in watching it. I was worried he'd dismiss it as a "chick flick," (such a sexist term, BTW), but he became instantly absorbed in the story, and wound up loving it, too. He was haunted for days, remembering Watts' performance and the destiny of her character.Someone here gave the film a low rating because she didn't like the characters. She found the women, particularly, unlovable, and without redemption. But that's just one of the many themes that makes this film so outstanding. People are not perfect. We fall in love with each other, despite our shortcomings, thankfully. I thought the script, performances and direction were all very subtle in conveying these complex and multitextured human realities.Just beautiful.