During all the years I’ve been going to the cinema it has only happened once that I exited the theatre before the end of the movie. I can’t remember the title of the movie I did that, but it was an Eastern European movie about gypsies. In general I always tend to finish what I start, but that can be difficult sometimes. It was certainly the case for this movie, Mommy.
The story is about a single mother, whose son has psychological issues. At the start of the movie she picks him up from an institution which no longer wants to keep him. He has ADHD, knows no boundaries and can be very aggressive. His mother tries to deal with it the best way she can, but when he attacks her one of the neighbours comes to the rescue. Together with her they decide to try to give him a future by schooling him and making him feel normal, which proves to be very hard to do.
Something which will immediately stand out is the 4:3 format in which this is shown and where this format is only changed a few times to represent specific feelings. That small format is something which will make you feel like you are missing out on more and it is a daring choice. During the past few years there were only a couple of movies who did so (for example Meek’s Cutoff and Grand Budapest Hotel), but there the format fit the period in which it was set. Mama is set in 2015 but because of the screen format feels old. The opening text leaves nothing to the imagination what will happen in the end. Besides that I thought the movie was way too long and inaccessible and it wasn’t able to keep my attention. If this movie hadn’t been shown during a festival I would have probably left before the end credits rolled (something others did decide to do).
thanks for biting the bullet for us on this one. It is tough when not much about a movie makes you want to keep watching. I left early on Movie 43 and that was the first one I ever walked out on. Sorry you went through that.
The thing is that I know it has been getting a lot of positive reviews, but it just didn’t do anything for me.
Hmmmmm…
Dolan is one of the greatest young filmmakers working today, and this film left Cannes with absolute raves, so I’m shocked at your reaction to it. Have you seen his other works? I’d be interested to see what you thought of those films as well.
Well, I haven’t seen any other work by Dolan and to be honest should it matter if you have seen other work of someone to form your opinion about it. I for one am not someone who is joining in on all the raves it has been getting. It simply did not work for me at all.
Yowch! Sounds rubbish. I’ll skip it.
Definitely not a movie everyone will be able to appreciate and know I was one of them.
Surprised by only 3/10, I heard it got a standing ovation at Cannes, a shame the film didn’t hold your attention and was too predictable.
His last film Laurence Anyways (2012) was also too long(3h), but I loved the way it mixed visuals with the soundtrack.
Well, maybe it is a good thing than that I hadn’t heard anything about it and simply formed my opinion based on the most important thing: My own experience. Have not seen Laurence Anyways.