Rating of
3.5/4
Film making at it's best
Matthew Brady - wrote on 07/03/15
You know what sucks? I already did my top movies of 2014 list, now if I only watched this movie before making the list this would have made the list easily. Well I got something to learn next time.
The story is about a single mom's drama about raising her son, who's behavior deteriorates into violence, due to a mild mental illness.
I first took interest in the film Mommy just because of the hype and the positive praise it got from the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and the amount of awards it won from the Jutra Awards and Canadian Screen Awards for best Foreign Language film, but not a Academy Award for Foreign Film at the Oscars. Since I am watching more Foreign Language films and searching the ones that got high ratings or just the ones that may interest me, because I'm taking a break from some movies today as they normally not very good or just too Hollywood for me, I mean movies today are getting pretty stale and cliche as nothing feels originally anymore. When Hollywood tries to make a original movie that's down to earth it's laughable. These something about Foreign Language films that always feel real and sometimes so tight with it's story and ending that most movie studios will shy away from and I love it. So I checked out the 2014 Award Wining Mommy and it was absolutely brilliant, I mean how could I even dear overlook this I mean this is a great movie right here and true film making at it's best.
Not only did the Oscar screw up for not awarding this for Best Foreign Language film, they also didn't nominate Anne Dorval for Best Actress, because she did one of the best, the most heart felt and the most real piece of performance I've seen in 2014. I felt her struggle and the mix relationship between her and the missed behaved son. There was many scenes in the movie were the son and her have this argument over each over and it never felt like I was just watching actors reading out the script and pretending that they related, no they back and forward arguments always felt real and I bough it. Oh and I found out most of the awards that this movie won are not just for the Foreign Language Award but most of the awards went to her and she deserves it and a Oscar too for god shake. At the Cannes Film Festival Julianne Moore won for Best Actress for Maps to the Stars and I haven't seen Maps to the Stars yet so I can't really judge on her performance in that movie since I haven't seen it, but Anne Dorval was nominated in that category so it was disappointing that she didn't take the award, but I have seen Still Alice and she won a Oscar for that role, but Anne Dorval should have took that Oscar home as she did a much better than Moore as I connected to Anne Dorval more and how her performance made me feel different emotions that I never felt before while watching the movie.
Antoine-Olivier Pilon is a unknown star to me as I haven't seen him in any other movies before so this is basically the first ever performance I get to see him in and man god can this kid act, I mean he was so good in the movie. Just like I said about Anne Dorval and that is all the time it never felt like acting to me, it felt real. Antoine plays the misbehaved son perfectly that he actually catches the trouble child very well since I have seen young people like him in real life and how they act is just like him. I also love how they never force the message of "He's got a mental illness oh feel sorry for him". The movie never puts that in your face like most movies do when they try to be realistic or make you feel something for the character. He's performance showed both angry, goofy, troubled and damaged but all that is in he's performance and it never feels force and that was so well done that movie didn't slip into that cliche that happens in most movies and that's due to Antoine-Olivier Pilon excellent performance.
The director of the movie Xavier Dolan which I haven't really seen any of his last work so this is my first movie directed by him and a great start. This is film making at it's best, I mean the cinematography is beautiful, the tone of the movie can switch to serious drama but quickly change to happy and many other tones and it didn't ruin the movie like most do. Xavier Dolan did both a excellent job on directing the movie and making this as down to earth as possible showing characters and they problems that most people can relate to. Awesome work Xavier Dolan.
For problems with the movie I haven't really got any to be honest, but I'm not going to give this the perfect rating as I think this isn't on the level of 4/4 rating it can ever get it, but the rating I'm giving it is really outstanding and it's the highest rating I give this week.
Overall I say that Mommy is worth checking it if you haven't seen it yet. It's worth your time and don't do the same mistake as I did and not watch this fantastic movie.
