Maman (2012)
Directed by Alexandra Leclère

Film Review

For her third film, director Alexandra Leclère stays with a theme that is close to her heart, that of family conflict.  Having dealt with sibling rivalry in Les Soeurs fâchées (2004) and marital strife in Le Prix à payer (2007), she now turns her attention to the rift between a mother and her estranged daughters in her latest film.  Drawing on her own experiences, Leclère delivers her most personal and bitter work to date, although the fact that she is raking over pass grievances might explain why it lacks the sparkle and conviction of her previous films.  Maman deserves a more detached, less emotional approach to avoid degenerating into a low-grade burlesque psychodrama.

As in her first two films, Leclère cannot be faulted on her casting.  Josiane Balasko is ideally suited for the part of the self-centred mother from Hell, and Mathilde Seigner and Marina Foïs are equally well-cast for the roles of the two headstrong daughters who employ terrorist tactics in a desperate attempt to gain some maternal affection.  The performances are predictably enjoyable to watch, although some overacting by all three in the more dramatic sequences does expose some serious weaknesses in the characterisation.   The film works hard to have an emotional impact, and in a few scenes it is genuinely moving, but overall it cannot help coming across as absurdly hysterical and contrived.

Film Synopsis

Sandrine and Alice are two sisters who have good reason to hate their mother.  They blame her for everything.  It was she who walked out on them when they were infants, she who destroyed their father, and in doing so ruined their lives.  Paulette clearly has no thought for anyone else and she has lived only for herself - her daughters means nothing to her.  Now in their thirties, Sandrine and Alice are keen to re-establish contact with their mother, whom they haven't seen for twenty years.  Both wonder if Paulette has changed and become a more considerate person.

It is possible that with age the errant mother will have come to regret her past.  She might even be over the moon to be reunited with her offspring after all these years.  Her daughters soon have these rose-tinted illusions shattered when they track down their mum and find themselves confronted with the same egocentric monster that has blighted their lives from childhood.  The sisters agree that if their mother will not love them of her own free will she must be made to do so, by force.  To that end, they drug her, kidnap her and take her to a remote empty house on the coast.  Now they have finally got Paulette's attention, Sandrine and Alice intend making a proper mother of her, even if it kills her...