By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Uma's Got A Brand New Bag(gy Dress) (views)
It’s not every day that Lifetime cable gets to premiere one of its movies here at Sundance.
Well… Motherhood isn’t actually set to premiere on Lifetime yet. But give it a few weeks.
The alternate title for this film should be “Bueller’s Beautiful Mom’s Day Out.”
You know… I am willing to roll with most conceits… but the “every damned thing is going to happen to me and redefine my life all in one day” genre requires some very specific skills. And Katherine Dieckmann, while reaching for something more, I think, doesn’t seem to have perspective on just how unrealistic her ode to female power is, not because women aren’t that strong, but because bringing home the bacon, frying it up in the pan, giving a birthday party, getting a flat tire, flirting with infidelity, seeking a new job, humiliating a friend thoughtlessly, getting a car towed, blogging repeatedly in under 100 words, writing self-imagined deeply insightful words, wearing 3 outfits and more all in one day is enough to make anyone choke. Some days may seem like that, but they really aren’t.
The oddest thing for me was that cinematographer Nancy Schreiber’s work here is so slick that it takes away from the idea of a rough hewn day in the life… thus the TV reference. They shoot all these great NY locations and the actors are so beautifully lit that it feels like they are on a stage and the real world is just a backdrop.
I won’t begin to deconstruct the obvious plot errors in the film. Not the point. It certainly isn’t a terrible movie. And grown grrrl power can be fun to watch. But the ambitions of this movie seemed to be more about making something palatable than something extraordinary. And this year at Sundance, that is a notion on the outs.