Mommy (2014) [Blu-ray]
Drama

--- Subtitled ---

Tagline: "We still love each other, right?" - "That's we're best at, buddy."

A feisty widowed single mom finds herself burdened with the full-time custody of her unpredictable 15-year-old ADHD son. As they struggle to make ends meet, Kyla, the peculiar new neighbor across the street, offers her help. Together, they find a new sense of balance, and hope is regained.

Storyline: Forty-six year old Diane Després - "Die" - has been widowed for three years. Considered white trash by many, Die does whatever she needs, including strutting her body in front of male employers who will look, to make an honest living. That bread-winning ability is affected when she makes the decision to remove her only offspring, fifteen year old Steve Després, from her previously imposed institutionalization, one step below juvenile detention. She institutionalized him shortly following her husband's death due to Steve's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and his violent outbursts. He was just kicked out of the latest in a long line of facilities for setting fire to the cafeteria, in turn injuring another boy. She made this decision to deinstitutionalize him as she didn't like the alternative, sending him into more restrictive juvenile detention from which he would probably never be rehabilitated. However, with this deinstitutionalization, she has to take care of him ... Written by Huggo

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov, March 26, 2015 Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and nine Canadian Screen Awards, Xavier Dolan's "Mommy" (2014) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Seville/Entertainment One. The supplemental features on the disc include an audio commentary with Xavier Dolan, producer Nancy Grant, cinematographer Andre Turpin, and actress Anne Dorval; deleted and extended scenes; archival footage from the Cannes Film Festival; and video interview with the Canadian director. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles. Region-A "locked".

The film opens up with a short note clarifying that a fictional government in Canada has introduced the S-18 bill aiming to amend the local health services policy. With it the government has also passed the controversial W/S-14 law, which allows parents to place children with behavior problems in the care of any public hospital without legal examination.

In an unnamed medical center, single mother Diane 'Die' Despres (Anne Dorval, Laurence Anyways) reunites with her 15-year-old ADHD son, Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon, TV's Les Argonautes). It is not an easy decision for her as she barely makes ends meet, but the alternative is to have him sent to a juvenile correctional facility because he has seriously injured another boy. Die is convinced that once there Steve's condition will deteriorate even more and he would end up in jail.

The two return home and Die is immediately reminded why Steve was admitted in the medical center -- his outbursts transform him into an angry animal that could easily kill. She tries to remain calm, but her face reveals that she is terrified. A day later, Die is fired after Steve confronts a black taxi driver and she arrives late at her office.

Things get better when Kyla (Suzanne Clément, I Killed My Mother), a stuttering schoolteacher from across the street, befriends Die and begins helping Steve. For awhile, Die assumes that Steve's condition will improve and his life will change dramatically -- here is a phenomenal sequence in which she imagines how he is accepted at a prestigious university and later on marries the girl of his dreams -- but his outbursts become even more intense. Eventually, Kyla and her husband also decide to relocate to Toronto.

Young Canadian director Xavier Dolan's Mommy is the type of film the great Maurice Pialat would have endorsed. Indeed, its visual style is very bold and unique and its intensity easily matches that of Pialat's best dramas.

The script, also written by Dolan, is extraordinary, pure dynamite. The words hit hard and leave one wondering why life can be so damn unfair at times. Throughout the entire film there is certain rawness on display that feels completely authentic, not added for dramatic flavor.

The majority of Mommy is presented in the unusual 1.00:1 ratio which creates the impression that the main protagonists are locked in a cage. When Dolan occasionally lets them free, the image expands to the traditional 1.78:1 ratio. The transitions are very effective and one can literally feel the happiness that fills their hearts.

The film also has a phenomenal soundtrack. Beautiful tracks by Dido, Sarah McLachlan, Oasis, and Lana Del Ray are carefully used to enhance the dramatic atmosphere. Arguably the most touching sequence in the entire film, however, features a fragment from Celine Dion's On ne change pas. Pure magic captured on film.

Last year, Mommy was selected to represent Canada in the Foreign Language Film Category at the 87nd Academy Awards.

It is difficult to explain with simple words how moving Xavier Dolan's latest film, Mommy, truly is. The issues it deals with are not new, but the pure emotions on display are often beyond overwhelming. If the great French director Maurice Pialat was still alive, I think that he would have enthusiastically endorsed it. Currently, in North America Mommy is available on Blu-ray only in Canada, courtesy of local distributors Seville/Entertainment One. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[CSW] -4.2- This film, in a word, was painful. This is a gut-wrenching movie that I enjoyed thoroughly. Both mother and son try their best with who they are. Families can be complicated. Trauma has consequences. The teenage years is a journey. Parenting is challenging. A story I've never seen depicted like that before. And, with unexpected turns. Although not explicitly explained I believe the neighbor's "problem" was that she lost her son. When she was looking at pictures of her family you see her daughter and then another picture of a little boy. Well, now she only has a daughter. The acting is great all the way around. A terribly touching story.
[V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box


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