IMDb RATING
6.7/10
4.7K
YOUR RATING
A woman has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.A woman has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.A woman has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 2 wins & 13 nominations total
Danira Govic
- Au Pair
- (as Danira Govich)
Zelda Tinska
- Barmaid
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe first feature film funded entirely by the BBC (courtesy of the British taxpayers).
- GoofsWhen May is telling Darren about her affair and just before she asks him to take her to bed, Darren does not have a carpenter's pencil in his ear. When we see him a few moments later, the pencil is over his ear.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Mother: Cast & Crew Interviews (2003)
Featured review
Fine acting, but no-one to like in this family
There's a very fine review by law prof on these pages and not much for me to add. Ann Reid puts in a superb performance as the middle-aged mum whose desires are re-awakened by her bullying husband's sudden death and Daniel Craig plays the Rough Trade tradesman with great gusto. There's also a wonderful cameo from Oliver Ford Davies as an elderly and inept suitor for Mum's hand. The story is told very clearly with sparkling photography the cheerful visual atmosphere being rather at odds with the grim storyline.
My problem however with the film is that everyone in it is either completely repulsive (eg the son and daughter in law and the rough tradesman) or is behaving badly. Mum is a sympathetic character but she makes all the wrong choices, and behaves pretty selfishly, though we do get an inkling as to why. She wouldn't be the first Mum to kick over the traces after a long marriage to a dominant partner. But we wind up feeling sorry for her daughter rather than Mum because she gets done over, not because she is otherwise sympathetic.
The trouble with movies like this that, though they are true to life and emotionally convincing, they leave an unpleasant aftertaste. Are we all that selfish and immature? Well, families are dangerous places and the majority of murders are committed by a member of the victim's families, but relatively speaking murder is a rare crime. Competition between mother and daughter for the same (trashy) lover is probably pretty rare also. When it does happen, a film about it is probably justified. Still, at the end we wind up with no-one to like, which rather muffles the impact of the story.
My problem however with the film is that everyone in it is either completely repulsive (eg the son and daughter in law and the rough tradesman) or is behaving badly. Mum is a sympathetic character but she makes all the wrong choices, and behaves pretty selfishly, though we do get an inkling as to why. She wouldn't be the first Mum to kick over the traces after a long marriage to a dominant partner. But we wind up feeling sorry for her daughter rather than Mum because she gets done over, not because she is otherwise sympathetic.
The trouble with movies like this that, though they are true to life and emotionally convincing, they leave an unpleasant aftertaste. Are we all that selfish and immature? Well, families are dangerous places and the majority of murders are committed by a member of the victim's families, but relatively speaking murder is a rare crime. Competition between mother and daughter for the same (trashy) lover is probably pretty rare also. When it does happen, a film about it is probably justified. Still, at the end we wind up with no-one to like, which rather muffles the impact of the story.
helpful•2510
- Philby-3
- Jan 11, 2005
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- 母親的春天
- Filming locations
- Notting Hill, London, Greater London, England, UK(on location)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,063,163
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $61,913
- May 30, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $3,039,587
- Runtime1 hour 52 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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