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Motherhood

5/10

Stars: Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie Driver, Daisy Tahan, Alice Drummond, Arjun Gupta

Director: Katherine Dieckmann

A comedy about one day in the life of Eliza (Thurman), a mother who still wants to be a writer, but now lives in a New York brownstone with her caring but absent-minded husband (Edwards), six year-old daughter, four-year-old son and an elderly dog.

Throughout the frenetic day, Eliza and her fellow characters seem to live in some kind of alternate universe, where mothers have fights in play areas over chance remarks, stagger around the supermarket with a plethora of bags (don't they have trolleys in America?), get harangued by the uptight guy in the queue over another chance remark, flirt frenziedly with a young Muslim who helps deliver the shopping, organise a birthday party for the daughter (well, at least that's believable) and blab her best friend's secret on her blog, together with her real name (as you do).

With glasses on, Thurman looks alarmingly like Sarah Palin and scuttles through the film at about the same speed. Edwards calms her perspiring brow efficiently, but a genuinely pregnant Driver is just painful as the friend, It's all harmless enough, though, and Jodie Foster pops in just long enough to spit out an expletive and disappear again. If exaggeration in the cause of effect doesn't bother you, you might find this film quite fun.

David Quinlan

USA 2010. UK Distributor: . Colour.
88 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 01 Mar 2010