Mother and Child
Metascore
64

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 32
  3. Negative: 1 out of 32
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  1. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    30
    A slow and lugubrious film about the impact of adoption on the lives of three women.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 26 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 1 out of 5
  1. nutterjr
    Jul 5, 2011
    8
    Some bonds are so strong that when broken the individuals previously connected can no longer function properly. Mother and child explore the mother and child bond and the effects it has on a woman desperately needing to be a mom and also a woman and her daughter separated at birth. The performances are pitch perfect from Bening, Watts and the remainder of the cast.… Full Review »
  2. Diezmartinez
    Oct 22, 2010
    7
    La primera pelicula hollywoodense de la productora Cha-Cha-Cha (fundada por Cuaron, Gonzalez Iarritu y del Toro) es un solido woman's film que, a pesar de un final demasiado convencional, tiene un par de elementos a su favor: la limpia realizacion artesanal de uno de los directores de cabecera de HBO Rodrigo Garcia y un reparto uniformemente competente en el que brilla especialmente Annette Benning en el papel de una seca enfermera cincuentona que no deja que el amor llame a su puerta.… Full Review »
  3. jeremyp
    Sep 10, 2010
    10
    This is a movie with strong women front and center and much softer men definitely on the perimeter. Benning is incredible, and with her acting in "The kids are all right" she ought to at least get the best female actor of the season award. She plays a brittle, socially prickly spinster living with her frail ailing mother. We learn early that she gave up her child at 14, and we are to presume that this has brought her to cope by keeping people at a distance, which she does with great success through the personality of a haughty, reactive, woman with her own arcane sense of social propriety.

    The child she gave up is played by Naomi Watts, who is also a bitter loner who has her mother's genes and the story to match. Naomi's character is far more powerful than Bennings. While Benning is a shrill, cold, arrogant woman who's defensiveness is expressed in attack, Naomi is a control Goddess, who uses her intellectual and sexual power to move men around like pieces on a check board. She seduces her boss (Samuel Jackson in a mellower role) after taking umbrage at his inviting her to dinner alone. The message is clear: "I make the moves here." Then without much of a break she seduces the next door married neighbor. Because she can? Partly, but I suspect mostly to strike back at his wife's pregnancy.

    The third mother in this story is played by Kerry Washington a married woman determined to adopt the child she cannot conceive. The woman whose child she wishes to adopt (played with fierce intensity by Shareeka Epps) is another strong woman. She's not simply giving up a child she's going to arrange it's future environment as much as she can. She doesnâ    … Full Review »
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