The Mother film review

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THE MOTHER

Ever since Hanif Kureishi announced his arrival with 1984's My Beautiful Laundrette he has shown himself as a writer who is unafraid to take chances. Some of them have not always worked (Sammy and Rosie Get Laid), but when he peeks behind the net curtains of English life to find untold gems of stories there is no-one to equal him. With his new work he surpasses the high standards he has set and provides one of the best British films of the year.

Anne Reid stars as May, the eponymous mother who visits her two grown-up children in London with her husband Toots (Peter Vaughan). They arrive to find a frenetic Notting Hill family, with noisy children and a son (Steven Mackintosh) busy with a hectic career and a demanding wife (Cathryn Bradshaw). Not only that but the house is being slowly refurbished by an oddball builder named Darren (Daniel Craig). May's other daughter Paula (Anna Wilson-Jones) lives in less salubrious surroundings and is a neurotic teacher and failed writer. She is also carrying on a rather desperate affair with Darren the builder.

When May's husband dies (don't worry this happens in the first few minutes) she decides to stay on in the capital. With the kids busy she has only the builder for company. Despite a thirty year age difference, they become close, and an affair begins. Sex in the bedroom in the afternoon with her daughter's lover becomes the routine.

This is the set-up for a highly charged and fascinating drama that is expertly handled all round. Roger Michell - who previously worked with Kureishi on The Buddha of Suburbia - takes a break from big budget Hollywood fare such as Changing Lanes) and shows he is hugely adept at intimate personal dramas. And while the script demands huge amounts from its actors, they are able to deliver in spades.

Anne Reid, more familiar to viewers from her role in television's Dinnerladies gives the performance of her career as May. The scenes in which her and Daniel Craig begin their relationship are raw and the strange passion between the two is evoked by open performances by both actors. They are supported by quality work all round, notably from Oliver Ford Davies who cuts another rather pathetic figure as May's would be older suitor.