Quick review of this movie with Annette Bening, one of my favorite actors. It wasn't what I expected. It's touted as a story of a single mother raising her son who is about 15, and she is about 55, and she "enlists the help of two younger women in his upbringing." Well, fine. The two younger women are living out the 1979-1980's lifestyle of lots of sex and little else. Not bad, but that's not really what you want for your 15 year old. Or I guess it could be, but Mom gets a little freaky about it after a while because she was expecting them to provide more thoughtful industry for her young lad. They had other ideas, of course.
This movie is really just about Annette Bening and how amazing she is. Her character, Dorothea, isn't likeable too often, but if you are a fan you don't really care. It is simply so cool to watch her, watch her face, her expressions, her shrugs of derision, her haughty smirks, the vulnerability in her face, how she delivers her lines like a shark one moment and then like a ghost or next time like a purring kitten and then suddenly like a witch. She amazes me. And she has the worst hair and clothes ever but they work, somehow. This movie is a showcase for her and for that reason alone you should watch it.
The really odd thing is that the character that Bening plays is only 4 years younger than my Mom would have been at that time and in absolutely no way is there any resemblance at all. None, zero, zip. My mother in no way was aware of the Woman's Movement, of Feminism, of freedom. At least that's what I remember as a kid. My Mom had six kids by the time she was 37. The movie character has one kid when she is 40. Huge difference. But I was reminded over and over what that meant in terms of how a woman viewed herself then. My Mom didn't have time to view herself. Bening's character had the luxury of worrying about her one child's formative years and wanted to make sure he turned out OK. In many ways, that's just a fairy tale of a life.
Oh, I could go on but I won't. It's a good movie, but I am not sure it's a movie that men would like. But I am not sure it's a movie that a lot of women would like either. I guess it's not a hugely likeable movie, but I did sort of like it while being a bit pissed about it at the same time. I would like to hear someone else's opinion. Anyone????
Bottom line, I loved watching Annette Bening and I would watch her in anything, anytime, so I came into it on the side of positive prejudice in that regard. The rest of the cast is fine, Billy Crudup is great as a hippy sort of handyman fuck buddy, but he is always good. Not as stellar as Bening, however.
OK, enough. Over and out.
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