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The mother - Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, Steven Mackintosh, Roger Michell

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

It can take a lifetime to feel alive.

May (Anne Reid) is a conservative grandmother from the suburbs. When her husband dies on a family visit to London, she finds herself alone for the first time in decades. Initially May recedes into the background of her busy, metropolitan childrens' lives. Stuck in an unfamiliar city far from home, May fears that she has become another invisible old person whose life is more or less over. Until, that is, she falls for Darren (Daniel Craig), a man half her age who is also having an affair with her daughter. As May discovers a new independence and confidence, for the first time in her life she feels alive.

Persons of interest

Anne Reid .... May
Peter Vaughan .... Toots
Anna Wilson-Jones .... Helen
Daniel Craig .... Darren
Danira Govich .... Au Pair
Harry Michell .... Harry
Rosie Michell .... Rosie
Steven Mackintosh .... Bobby
Cathryn Bradshaw .... Paula
Carlo Kureishi .... Jack
Sachin Kureishi .... Jack
Oliver Ford Davies .... Bruce
Hanif Kureishi .... Screenwriter
Roger Michell .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

The mother official movie site
The mother QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

See also Broken wings (Knafayim Shvurot)
Studios and distributors:

Sony Classics * Icon Film Distribution

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Joe Orton wrote a play called Entertaining Mr Sloane, in which Sloane gets it on with - alternately - Ed and Kath, a brother and sister tragedy in the making. This black examination of middle-class sexual politics comes back to me as I watch The mother: people destroying their lives one day at a time.

Also examined is the sense of disassociation that comes with complete freedom, most blatant in the character of Paula, a weak, clingy, red wine drinking, arty, pathetic example of womanhood. *Shudders* She asks: Who am I? What do I want? What do I like? What should I do? Everyone asks these questions of themselves but they generally have the decency not to inflict them on the rest of us (they're questions that no-one else can answer for you). Paula is the type of person you want to slap. You want to shout, "Wake up to yourself!" "Toughen up Princess, dry your eyes!" "Get over it!"

May, Paula's mother, lets loose a few home truths about the lot of women in the olden days (30 years ago) and of herself in particular. Women with no great interest in husbands or children ended up married to men they didn't love with kids they had no understanding of how to raise. It's the conundrum that developed in to suburban neurosis. Librium, valium, gin: where would you be without them? *Shudders* Watching May (Anne Reid) having orgasms with Darren (Daniel Craig) is a real mind-blower. Who knew old women had it in them?

Anyway, you'll leave the cinema with a frown on your face because it's that type of film. It depresses you, it makes you think, it makes you hope that you don't end up as some pathetic, lost senior watching their life dribble away. God bless euthanasia.