Elfenluna

Motherhood (2009)

Motherhood redefines the word 'Insipid' *SPOILER*

The character of Eliza is as thin and see-through as the dress she wears through-out. I am disappointed not only by the poor characters and holey plot but by the portray of mothers in general. Every mother outside of the main characters circle seems to be pretentious and annoying. Scratch that all the mothers in the film are annoying along with our lead who is also sallow and whiny. Eliza complains that mothers are not regarded as people, well if that's the message the writer set out to shatter during the film all she succeeded in doing was enhancing it.

The film does have some positive moments which are quite amusing. But these are drowned in Eliza's petty cry of 'It's so hard being a mummy!'. Eliza's sheer pathetic nature ruins any chance of a creditable message shining through. If the main character had been portrayed realistically it may have been partly salvaged. But Eliza comes off as having at the maturity of a school girl facing 'challenges' which have been blown out of proportion.

What challenges does this women face? A time schedule, a flight of stairs, walking a dog and losing her car. Oh dear poor darling she's had a hard day. Her reaction of trying to run away towards the end of the film is ridiculous. 'My child has the flimsy plastic plates and hastily obtained gifts she asked for she doesn't need me!' Her husband gives her a poor review, if she had previously been a professional author she surely had received worse than that.

I also found it remarkable that with her 'busy' schedule she managed to get take-away coffee, invite a strange man into her home and dance with him and go to a sale. Eliza demands through-out to be an individual not to be seen as just a 'mother'. This is perfectly justifiable but Eliza seems to merely be motivated by selfishness. The cold hard truth that the film hastily puts across is that she cannot be both. The moral I wanted to tell Eliza was that sometimes life is difficult and that when you have children they must come first like it or not. I also wanted to inform her how lucky she is. Her children are healthy, her husband doesn't use her as a football, she has a home and an income.

All in all Eliza needs to grow up.

The film doesn't not show the plight of mothers just the petty cries of well-off white women who have no idea what hardship truly is. I say she is rich because she can afford to feed her children and clothe them, buy things for herself and have a car. Some mothers believe it or not don't have that. I wonder how Eliza would cope handling their lives.