Sadly Over-hyped

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It takes guts to adapt a stage play to the screen without "opening it up;" most of the time such efforts either feel confining or, if opened up, the power of the original gets lost in the screenplay."'night, Mother", adapted to the screen by the original playwright Marsha Norman, is a courageous, nearly heroic effort: Norman does not allow the action to move outside the small house shared by Thelma Cates (Anne Bancroft) and her daughter Jessie (Sissy Spacek) and the result is a harrowing look at two unhappy women and the different solutions they find for their unhappiness.Jessie, a middle-aged epileptic who can neither hold down a job or even drive a car, whose husband has left her and whose son is a petty criminal, has decided on her "final solution:" suicide, with her late father's pistol.The film opens with Jessie puttering around the house and we see that she has a list of things to do before taking her leave. The camera follows Spacek around the house as she does laundry, cleans out the refrigerator and some of the kitchen cabinets, occasionally glancing at her list and crossing an item off.Enter Thelma, home from some kind of shopping trip. The dialogue between them is completely ordinary until Thelma sees Jessie cleaning her father's pistol and, after some verbal fencing, Jessie tells Thelma of her plan to be dead by morning.Thus the stage is set for a tug-of-war for Jessie's soul, with Mama on one side and Jessie herself on the other. Thelma becomes increasingly desperate as she realizes her daughter has made up her mind, and the film builds to a shattering climax.The original Broadway cast was Kathy Bates as Jessie and Anne Pitoniak as Thelma. It's a little unfortunate that they didn't bring them to the screen: Spacek and Bancroft are both excellent but they don't always seem to be related. Spacek is real while Bancroft is theatrical and they don't always appear to be on the same page dramatically. But this is a small quibble about an otherwise superb film that ultimately breaks the heart.

I loved this movie. I caught it this morning and I was glued to the TV from the first minute. The two main actresses did a wonderful job, you don't doubt their performance for one minute. Everything seemed so real, the set could have been any house in the mid-west. This is definitely a movie that sticks with you long after the movie ends. I can't believe this movie isn't more well known and celebrated. Though I rarely watch movies a second time this is one I want to add to my collection to watch again and again. I think every time I watch this it will touch me in different ways. The story is so rich with detail, it feels as if you know the characters. A very moving, thought provoking, touching film you won't want to miss.

Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft have really immersed themselves in the characters in this movie, to the point where I really suspended disbelief. I empathize with both of the characters so much in this film. I know this sound so cliché, but this movie touches me on a personal level like few films ever do. I am a smoker, and I have never heard a better description in a movie of why someone smokes. There are so many lines from both characters that touch me so deeply. When i first saw this movie, it reminded me of the MacDonald's scene in the movie Ordinary People as to why someone would be driven to suicide. This movie i will watch again and again, despite how it turns out, to enjoy the powerhouse acting and the great dialog.

It's gut wrenching, incredibly sad, funny in a few parts and completely shocking. I first saw this movie in my early 20's and it had a profound effect on me. I do not watch it much because it is very, very deep and extremely, depressing.Jessie Cates, played by Sissy Spacek, is a middle-aged, epileptic living with her mother. She has had a traumatic, divorce in her past and a wayward son headed for prison. Due to her illness, she can't drive or hold down a job and has no hopes that anything will get better for her. Jessie, has after years of contemplating suicide, finally picked the night to do it. She has organized her personal belongings and put everything in order. Now, all she has to do is tell her mother.Anne Bancroft, plays Jessie's mother, the blissfully ignorant, Thelma Cates. Who by her own description, is "a plain, old, country woman" who "just really doesn't think there's all that much to things". She is caught totally off guard when her daughter tells her, she is planning to kill herself that night. Momma Cates is so blatantly unaware that her daughter is unhappy that she even tells her where the gun is before asking why.The subject matter and the way it's presented is so thought provoking that one doesn't even take notice of the fact that almost this entire movie consists of basically only two actresses.I highly recommend this movie, just don't expect a happy ending.