A thorough and moving examination of the bond between mothers and children, exemplified by three stories. We meet a middle-aged woman (Annette Bening) who’s never been able to move past giving up her newborn daughter when she was 14; a career-oriented business lawyer (Naomi Watts) whose life’s about to change; and a woman (Kerry Washington) trying to adopt a child. The stories are simultaneously told, and even if it comes as no surprise that these women’s paths will cross, director Rodrigo Garcia largely avoids contrivances. Watts’s journey may be the least convincing part of the film, but she (and the entire cast) is a treat to watch.
2010-U.S. 126 min. Color. Widescreen.Ā Produced byĀ Julie Lynn, Lisa Maria Falcone.Ā Written and directed byĀ Rodrigo Garcia.Ā Cast:Ā Naomi Watts (Elizabeth), Annette Bening (Karen), Kerry Washington (Lucy), Jimmy Smits, Samuel L. Jackson, S. Epatha Merkersonā¦ David Morse.
Trivia:Ā Robin Wright was allegedly considered for a lead role.
Last word: “It didn’t even start off being about adoption. What interested me was this idea of people who live with an absent person in their lives ā a ghost, someone who moved away, or left you, or remarried, or was exiled, or died, or whatever. People who sometimes have this presence with all those questions ā where are they now? ā at anniversaries, birthdays, all that stuff. That’s what interested me.” (Garcia, City Paper)
