Years from now, I'm convinced, Albert Brooks will be fondly remembered in the same way that, say, a Preston Sturges is today. The writer/director has produced—and starred in—a string of intelligent comedies: small gems like Real Life (1979), Modern Romance (1981), Lost in America (1985) and Mother (1996).
Mother may not seem like much but I really appreciate what Brooks does here. And I'm pleased that at least one reviewer sees what I see: longtime film critic Andrew Sarris picked Mother as the best film of the year.
Mother is about a mother/son relationship and what strikes me about that (and perhaps what struck Sarris) is how uncommon that seems. I mean, mother/son relationships are hardly rare and yet—for some reason—there's not a lot of films out there that deal with the subject. And I think Brooks' point might be this: that there should be hundreds of them. That they should be commonplace.
In Mother Brooks plays John Henderson, a twice-divorced science-fiction writer wondering why his relationships with women always turn sour. There's a theme that runs through all of Brooks' movies and that's the notion of "finding" oneself. Here the 40-year-old "blocked" writer moves back in with his widowed mother, Beatrice, to see if he can find some clues. Beatrice is well played by Debbie Reynolds, returning after a 27-year absence and making a "comeback" of sorts.
There's a terrific scene early on that sets this up. He's visiting his married brother Jeff (Rob Morrow)—a successful sports agent who is perhaps the real "mama's boy" in the family—and they have this after-dinner discussion where Brooks raises some questions. Why, he wonders, is mom more critical of me than you?
"You're a complicated guy," his brother tells him.
"Well, let me tell you something," Brooks admits, "this is affecting my whole life. I feel estranged from my own mother and I don't like it. It affects everything I do—especially with women."
His brother's advice: there's nothing he can do.
Ah, but Brooks has a plan (Brooks, it seems, always has a plan): he'll move back in with mom.
"You're crazy," his brother tells him, "that's ridiculous."
"Why?" Brooks asks, as we start to hear the barely audible strains of Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson".
It just is his brother replies.
"You know what? You sound a little jealous," Brooks tells him, a smile on his face, as "Mrs. Robinson" can be more clearly heard.
The scene goes on a little longer and we get a smash cut to Brooks in his sports car that recalls the famous cut in Brooks' Lost in America (I think it was at this point that I realized that the two films are structurally similar).
In Lost in America—where Brooks and his wife quit their jobs, sell the house, and "drop out" of society to hit the open road—the sequence began with a going-away party and the toast: "America, look out, here we come." That was immediately followed by a cut to a moving tire as Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" played on the soundtrack. Here, we cut to a moving convertible that features an updated Simon and Garfunkel number ("And here's to you, Mrs. Henderson, your grown son is moving back today…hey, hey, hey").
This is a terrific scene—a real smile-inducer—and, for me, there's a palpable excitement to it. There's also a beautiful helicopter shot of the car going over the Golden Gate Bridge which, I suppose, could be seen as being loaded with symbolism.
Beatrice lives in Sausalito and their first night doesn't go so well. He's a vegetarian and he doesn't like any of her food. This includes some old, unappealing sherbet that she pulls out of the freezer. The dessert has ice on the top—"protective ice" mom tells him. Brooks is astonished: "You've actually named the clear, hard crap that sits on the top?" Later, they'll go shopping and Brooks will buy some Häagen-Dazs.
The scene where Brooks reconstructs his room (which mom has converted into a "sewing room" even though she doesn't sew) is nicely done. Brooks has an eye for detail and I liked the nostalgic feel to it and Brooks' selection of background music: "In My Room" by the Beach Boys. There's some cool stuff that comes out of the garage too: "Barbarella" and "Planet of the Apes" posters, a Gort action-figure from "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and a Robby the Robot toy from Forbidden Planet.
It's rare that a movie speaks as loudly to me as this one does, but the scene where the two go grocery shopping is priceless. Brooks could be describing my own relationship with my mom here as he tries to get his mother to just splurge and buy the most expensive jelly ("We're in the 90's, its fancy jam time").
The point to all this is that Brooks feels mom treats herself very cheaply (and that the cheapness and self-loathing has been instilled in him).
Mother is a nice piece of writing. Like many of his other films, he co-wrote the screenplay with Monica Johnson (the one-time creative consultant on TV's "It's Gary Shandling's Show"—a favorite of mine years ago). The two snagged the Best Screenplay award from both the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics.
And that's great. The only problem I have with Mother (and it's not exactly minor) is the abrupt ending. Brooks tries to wrap things up very neatly in a too-pat, sitcom-like way that, I'm afraid, isn't entirely convincing. But a neat job prior to that.
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