The Good Mother, 2023.
Directed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte.
Starring Hilary Swank, Olivia Cooke, Jack Reynor, Dilone, Hopper Penn, Norm Lewis, Karen Aldridge, Frank Alfano, Laurent Rejto, Nate Francis, Mikayla Schaefer, and Cliff Ware.
SYNOPSIS:
A journalist who, after the murder of her estranged son, forms an unlikely alliance with his pregnant girlfriend to track down those responsible for his death. Together, they confront a world of drugs and corruption.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, The Good Mother wouldn’t exist.
Olivia Cooke’s drug-rehabilitated mother-to-be Paige asks what it’s like to be married to a cop. Dilone’s Gina – the partner to Paige’s deceased boyfriend’s brother – says it’s scary and you never know if he is coming home alive. Paige remarks that it sounds like being with a junkie. This is not the only compelling relationship dynamic to explore within co-writer/director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (collaborating alongside Madison Harrison) The Good Mother, which is primarily centered on Hilary Swank’s grieving alcoholic journalist with writer’s block mother, Marissa, at odds with the woman she believed drove one of her sons down a deadly path of drugs, now working together to investigate the shady circumstances surrounding his fatal shooting.
Unfortunately, aside from some small flashes of decent character work early on, all these filmmakers see is the opportunity for overcooked thriller storytelling that is not only predictable scene-by-scene but becomes shockingly dumb by its final frame. With this talented cast (also including Jack Reynor as the more ambitious, respectable police officer brother and son), there is enough to these performances to overcome their inherently clichéd personalities, at least before the story falls apart. However, the screenplay also comes across as overly calculated to where every scene, even ones showing off a safe space for clean injections that could potentially save drug-addicted lives, quickly turns into something awkwardly suspenseful with larger narrative implications. The film insistently goes out of its way to not be about these characters.
Even in the early going, where Marissa cannot resist slapping Paige across the face during a funeral, The Good Mother is overblown and lacks nuance. As the characters get together and talk about the mysterious death, these events don’t add up, considering Michael (Madison Harrison) had quit using and was excited to be a father, yet was still gunned down anyway while forced and frantically looking to meet up with a friend (Hopper Penn) at a squatting house. There are also brief flashbacks showing the murder, seemingly meant to be from the perspective of these characters putting their information together, weirdly giving away more information than they would actually know.
It goes without saying that Marissa gets the story of a lifetime once these characters get to the truth behind a web of duty secrets and one that threatens to shatter what remains of her family. However, it’s also a ridiculous and nonsensical story that feels crafted for the sake of drama rather than saying anything meaningful about these characters, their professions, or drug addiction.
During a group therapy rehab session, there is also a supporting character played by Karen Aldridge, telling the story of walking into her daughter’s bedroom and the harrowing realization that she had overdosed, also powerfully getting into how that also becomes the specific moment where whatever illusions one has put up about having a happy life or being the perfect parent come crashing down. It’s one of the only moving moments in The Good Mother, which is mostly a bad movie that barrels toward predictable stupidity as it progresses.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
