Motherhood (2009)

Pretty Good

i must have seen a different film!!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

If you make the mistake of reading this movie's own description, you go into it thinking that you're going to find a light-hearted, funny account of a mother trying to pull off the ultimate birthday party. The early parts of the movie seem to reinforce this, especially the encounter with the snooty neighbour and daughter who go on and on about the fabulous birthday party they had pulled off. So, you think this is going to turn into a competition to make a better birthday party. But from that point on, any sense of fun in this movie just absolutely disappears, and never reappears. This becomes a sombre movie, that really focuses more on Eliza's disillusionment with her life, her husband, the sacrifices she had to make, etc., etc. Boo hoo. You had to sacrifice something for the sake of your children and things didn't turn out exactly the way you had hoped and dreamed they would. Well, Eliza, welcome to real life. Sometimes we sacrifice and change direction for the sake of our kids. It's called parenthood - or in Eliza's case, "Motherhood."OK. I didn't like the overall whiny tone of the movie or of Eliza's character. Setting that distaste aside, I have two fundamental problems with this: (a) it wasn't funny or even just humorous, and (b) it wasn't really interesting. There was nothing that made this story seem like a movie should be made out of it. Eliza's car got towed. Wow. Her friend got mad at her because she broke a confidence. Gee. She lost her parking spot. Tell me it ain't so! Gripping stuff. The only thing I felt compelled to watch closely was when Eliza brought the messenger in for a drink of water. You're thinking that "something" is going to happen between the two of them. I liked the way that turned out. Beyond that, the movie's really devoid of substance.It benefits from having basically likable leads. Uma Thurman and Anthony Edwards are fine. Not a lot of chemistry between them, and the one extended kissing scene between them in the whole movie seemed quite forced and artificial. But they're likable enough. They make it watchable; they don't make it good, though. (3/10)

i personally liked it and i watch loads of movies, it might not be a movie to watch in the cinema but it's more than okay to watch on DVD, i like movies that appear to be situated in cities and show a lot of the city, i don't know new york personally but liked the way it was portrayed in this movie, i also thought it was fun to watch, at least it's different than most moviesi thought it was believable that moms have those kinds of days and experience things like she did, driven to frustration by the complete situation, and feelings of being taken for granted trying to cope with being not just a mom but also a woman, must not be taken lightly i guess, it sure broadened my respect for some moms, but that's just me or is it?

My wife and I rented this the other night from the movie machine at Publix. I really had no interest in seeing it, but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. I like Uma Thurman, and always found her sexy, sagging boobs and all. She seems like a competent enough actress, but she definitely has had the lions share of bombs, going back to Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Gattaca, etc.In this movie, like billions before, it is set in Manhattan, which I am really quite sick of. The first few minutes of the film, in which we see Uma shambling around a shabby apartment, seemed kind of creepy, like a PSA for depression. The film is very uneven and can't be called a comedy, and really didn't seem like a drama or love story. If anything, it shows the average New Yorker as quite annoying and unlikable. Uma's character whines about not having time to do anything, even though she does not have a job and creates extra work for herself, like giving her elderly neighbor orange juice. She writes meaningless Blogs, Carrie Bradshaw- style, in the "little slices of free time" she has. She runs around like a crazy person, trying to prepare for her daughter's birthday, obsessing bizarrely over the fact that the day is the "last day my daughter will be 5". WTF was that all about? Also, why does she wait until the last minute to prepare for the party? She seems to want to be a victim, to be able to complain incessantly about the "hardships of being a mother". Like other posters said, having children is a choice (usually). Nobody forced her to have two kids, and a dog she doesn't clean up after!I am sick of so many unoriginal movies about parenthood. Why doesn't Hollywood do something original (fat chance) and actually portray a couple that cannot have kids? The fact that this movie flopped so badly is a good indication that people are sick of this type of movie. I will give this movie a little bit of credit for having the couple not be rich and I liked the Pylon song Uma and the delivery guy danced to.

Yes, £88 in the opening Weekend and i got dragged along by the wife !!!So shall i start with the positives, its less than 90 minutes long and there we have it. Now lets start with the negatives, lousy story, poor lead character, No Humour, no point to the story, no direction and not entertaining. If it was not for Minnie Drivers Character (as brief as it is) this movie would score a massive Zero.I really could not relate to this film, my wife and I are about to have our first child but if this is what motherhood/parenthood is like its extremely depressing. Uma Thurmans character has no character, I don't know if this was down to the writing or the actingAll i can say is 11 people in the UK watched this on opening weekend, 11. I can see why it is going to be a major flop.