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Ma Mère

EMAILPRINTTLA Releasing

Ma Mère reviews
35
9.6 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 94 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Christophe Honoré
Georges Bataille (novel)

Directed by: Christophe Honoré

Release Date:
Theatrical: May 13, 2005
DVD: October 18, 2005

Running Time: 110 minutes, Color

Origin: France / Portugal / Austria / Spain

Summary

RATING: NC-17 for strong and aberrant sexual content

Starring Louis Garrel, Isabelle Huppert, Emma de Caunes, Joana Preiss, Jean-Baptiste Montagut, Philippe Duclos, Dominique Reymond, and Olivier Rabourdin

A disturbing relationship develops between an attractive widow (Huppert) and her teenage son (Garrel).

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

63

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Isn't for the kiddies. It probably isn't for anyone not interested in the darkest corners of the human psyche.

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63

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Ma Mere, with its sun-drenched sense of dread and band of reckless, unlikable characters, isn't very good, but that doesn't stop the actors -- especially the intrepid Huppert -- from going all the way.

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50

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's pretentious highbrow trash, but as far as that goes it works pretty well.

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50

Variety Scott Foundas

Director Christophe Honore's respectable, tightly coiled, but ultimately unrewarding adaptation of Georges Bataille's posthumous novel.

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50

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Can't transcend its own suffocating milieu.

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50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Based on a novel by French provocateur Georges Bataille, an important thinker whose fiction rarely translates into good cinema.

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50

TV Guide Ken Fox

For all its shocking content, it remains a rather conventional psychological portrait of Oedipal attraction taken to a disturbing extreme.

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42

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Ma Mère, while less prudish than Catherine Breillat's dour deconstructions of sex, is also less competent. It winds up making incest look absurdly swank.

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40

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Yet another stylish exercise in depravity in which Huppert floats through the sordid proceedings in a calm haze. If only the film she inhabits was as sexy as it aspires to be.

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40

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

At first, Ma Mère is shocking and even alluring, but it doesn't take long for the conceit to wear thin, especially since the characters so rarely act as recognizable humans.

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40

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

So clinically detached it borders on absurd.

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40

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Ma Mère may be ludicrous, but its cast displays a commitment that deserves more than grudging admiration.

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38

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

If you are at all squeamish about incest and/or prefer sex scenes without violent undertones, you should avoid this movie.

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38

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

This tale of disaffected sexual depravity is practically a parody of the worst of French filmmaking.

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30

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Honoré never gets beneath these characters' sunburned skins, and well before the end, the film tips irretrievably over into the realm of absurdity.

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25

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Huppert is wonderful, as usual, and she's to be congratulated for taking this daring role. But, alas, even she can't save Ma Mere.

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25

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

110 minutes of Euro silliness mitigated only by the presence of Huppert and the striking ability of the actors to keep a straight face throughout this mess.

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10

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Involves such a disturbing blend of unhealthy mother-son affection and physical pain that it gives new meaning to the term child -- not to mention audience -- abuse.

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10

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Degrading, disgusting and depressing.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 94 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rob gave it a6:
This movie fails on almost every level except for 2 heavily important ones: the acting, and the depiction of how one wreckles soul can destroy the lives and steal the innocence of everybody she comes into contact with.

Ughi Y. gave it a10:
I liked the film. Best I've seen in a while. Nothing special. But, I thought Louis Garrel was amazing. Good cinematography. A little sexual but you know. One of the best French films in a while. The NC-17 rating was so cool!

Prudence K. gave it a10:
Louis Garrel and Isabelle Huppert both deserve Oscar for their chilling performances! Incredible film. The best film I've ever seen of all time.

Moi A. gave it a0:
All I can say is......YUCK!!!!!

Mandy gave it a1:
AWFUL. sick, perverse. i walks out after an hour and a half and i'm shocked that i stayed that long. the plot was weak, so the gratuitous, violent, sexual scenes grew to be boring. yes, they were disturbing, but there was no plot to back them.

Oscar P. gave it a2:
One of the worst french films i have seen in the cinema. I. Huppert is the best of this.

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