I went to the movies again. Saw another two films. The first one, “The notebook” is a very romantic story about an old couple in which the wife suffers from Alzeimer’s disease. The husband reads to her the story of their life together, to help her remember. Half the film is in the here and now, the other half is flashbacks. The actors are very handsome and the story, touching. A slick tear jerker.
The second film on the other hand, is a bit more difficult. It was a british film called “The mother”. It is a well made film, with unusual shots and interesting lighting but I cannot swallow the script. It is the story of an older woman whose husband passes away. She decides to go visit her children in London. She has a son who is totally superficial and a tormented daughter who has a married lover. The mother ends up having sex with her daughter’s lover. My intuition tells me this story was written by a man. It makes no sense to me that this woman would choose to have sex with a drug addict who only wants her money, who is neither especially nice, nor clean looking and who is her daughter’s lover to boot. There is little passion to justify this transgression. The mother does not express any deep thoughts or feelings,she comes across as very plain on all levels. She is irritating in her apathy. This affair could be her awakening but she never seems to wake up even when her daughter punches her in the face. In the last scene she packs her sketch book in her bags and walks away from her house… letting the viewer imagine her fate.