Too much of everything

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

How sad is this?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

I went to bed one night and wanted to watch a movie because I wasn't tired. I looked through the "International Movies" section and found Madre. I'm a spanish native speaker so I thought to myself why not. It all started with a severe autistic child and a pregnant mother who worried for him and had a tough time caring for him. Eventually, the mother had an episode with the child at a grocery store and bumped into Luz, the Filipino nanny. Everything went downhill after this and the nanny was doing all sorts of satanic rituals. It was a crazy and unique movie, I loved it and you would too.

The movie was good but the end was TOO MUCH. I still don't understand the reason they did that and WHERE did they go at the end? Sorry but it wasn't a clear nor a pleasant ending. But I think it was a good movie but the ending didn't make much sense. They should had done a better job for the ending.

The subject matter is handled honestly, at times delicately and at times brutally honest. I don't remember seeing another movie that portrays the daily life of a mother of an impaired child this way, with such candor. It really shows the stage beyond just suffering, fighting uphill every minute of the day to reclaim some normality. It is intriguingly and beautifully done. The plot progresses quite naturally and becomes mysterious for a while, edge of your seat don't want to miss a clue kind of mysterious. The casting is superb, each actor bringing something more to the role, a genuine spark that makes them extremely plausible and real. I love that the filmmaker is not concerned with political correctness. The ending may seem extreme, but not if you read the papers on a regular basis.

This movie has a very interesting premise that promises to give a different spin to the "expectant mother psychological thriller". In this case, the mother in question is also the caretaker of her son, who suffers from one of those severe cases of autism that require extreme measures, like the use of restraints. The unpleasantness of her daily routine with the boy is taking a toll with nerves of the poor woman, and on top of that the possibly unfaithful husband is abroad almost most of the time. Things seems to get better when the protagonist hires a Filipino immigrant, Luz, a woman who claims she was able to "cure" her own son from autism. She moves in, and soon creates a bond with the child that, while improving his condition, seems to displace and alienate the real mom. The first 40 minutes or so are pretty decent, a realistic an unnerving depiction of a domestic nightmare. Acting is good as well from both actors playing mother and son. However, when the character of the Filipino nanny is introduced, in a move that seems intriguing at first while you try to figure out the new plot dynamics, the director and writer start to introduce heavy handed racial stereotypes and plot points that transform the whole enterprise in an anachronistic potboiler akin to nazi propaganda. You get basically a posh family pit against Asian immigrants who rudely speak their own language in from of them, practice strange rituals, sow discord, steal their children and, yes, kill dogs too. The clear xenophobic message is pushed even further with a shot of the national flag near the end. Unfortunately this movie proves that, as of 2017, xenophobia is already a global movement.