Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I call it a "thriller-lite".  It was so predictable and tame that it certainly didn't have me on the edge of my seat, but it was a very watchable hour and a half.

I'm talking about Mother's Boys, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis as the "evil mom". 

Curtis plays Jude, a woman who just up and left her family three years ago.  Husband Robert (Peter Gallagher) and the three young sons struggled at first, but are managing to put their lives back together again. Robert's even ready to move on with his new love interest.

But now Jude's back.  And she wants her family back.  As far as she's concerned, everything should just go back to exactly how it was three years ago when she left.  But Robert and the boys feel differently.  And that's where Jude's inner sociopath comes to the surface.  She's not above a little manipulation here, and some evil plots there, to get what she wants.  She will not be ignored!  (She doesn't actually utter that line from Fatal Attraction, but she might as well have).

There are some very fine performances in this movie.  Curtis was terrific as the sadistic, evil mother.  Beautiful on the outside, but with a simmering evil on the inside that the viewers can see growing with each passing scene.  And I really have to give kudos to the three young actors playing the sons.  The two younger boys were just adorable, and did quite well on their own.  But the older boy (played by a teenaged Luke Edwards) was terrific.  As the one son old enough to really remember his mother, he was able to show both anger at the abandonment and desire to go back to being "momma's boy" with the grace that older actors sometimes can't grab.

As for Gallagher, well, he played the role the way he plays all of his roles - there's really nothing more to say about him.

I have to say I didn't quite get the casting decision that placed Joanne Whalley into the role of Robert's current girlfriend.  She looked completely wrong for the part - and her performance was almost unbearable.   Especially during her "big scene" near the end where she's faced with some tough decisions.  She looked more like a deer caught in the headlights than a woman trying to save herself, and the kids she supposedly loves.  She definitely brought this movie down a notch.

Finally, I have to mention the script.  It was a bit too lite on the thrills for my taste.  They just did not take it far enough.  If you're going to give us an evil mother, give us some REAL evil.  Not half-baked evil.  The movie comes off like a made-for-TV movie, instead of the R-rated thriller I signed up to watch.

In the end, it's watchable, but it's not great. 

Recommended: Yes