Mother's Little Helpers

This movie was genuinely endearing and equal parts sweet, sad, and funny. I was expecting a sort of B level indie film when I clicked on this while surfing films on Amazon Prime but instead was surprised to find a cinematic gem. The acting was impeccable. Coming from a giant family, the sibling dynamics in the screenplay were spot on. I found the whole package surprising, hilarious, and daring - hope this movie becomes a cult classic.

I see the reality in this movie. Many won't ever have to deal with the truth of this story but for those have, this is a story that needed to be told. Thank you.

Death, taxes and less-than-perfect parenting are inevitable parts of most American stories but I've rarely seen them explored with such authenticity, humor and heart. Few films hit the right notes of the gut punch of losing a parent, and the belly laughs you can only share with a sibling. This one took me to that deep place and I genuinely laughed and cried while watching this film on my phone in bed. I watched it again immediately!

If anyone has ever been with someone in hospice or a parent/step parent dying, this is so relatable. Otherwise, it may be the reason for some low reviews. This movie shows a family that is given the rare opportunity to process what happened in their lives, and discover who their mother really was, and how it affected who they became. It's a telling story of the lies and facades people put on to be who they want others to think they are, or who they wanted to be. It shows a slice of the truth to each of them, so they can let go, and accept what was and what is now. Would like to have seen more emotion from the mother, but maybe that was her character. She looked to young and well to be the mother.

A seemingly bitter and untrustworthy mother discovers she is dying and implores her children to visit her during her remaining days. Each child themself has issues that seem to stem from their relationship with their mother, but these issues are not explored in enough depth to make you care about them. The revelations towards the end of the film aren't enough to save this drab, melancholy, bitter sweet snooze fest.

I laughed and I cried (literally). This movie tackles a subject to which many of us can relate - the dysfunctional family. With a sharp comedic twist, this film is smart, witty and cathartic in the most entertaining way!

Mother's little helpers was a film that didn't dive into the themes it talked about enough and gave a very superficial take on this family coming together. The film is way too slow at the beginning and characters don't exactly react to certain aspects of the plot to the extent I thought they would when the film was unfolding, for example their were instances when a character would be upset about something and then another event will take place they would go back to being happy again in a short amount of time and it felt a little jarring. It also hit a point when the most interesting element of the film in the 3rd act hit and it felt a little underwhelming due to an underwhelming build up. On the positive side you can tell the filmmakers put a lot of passion into writing the dialogue and crafting the movie, there were transitions in the film where they would cut to the characters in their childhoods and then go back to them now which felt like an interesting use of juxtaposition. Kestrin Pantera, Sam Littlefield and Melanie Hutsell's characters also felt like they got full character arcs, which is fitting as these three were the strongest actors in the film. However, the rest of the cast almost felt like filler and they didn't get very satisfying arcs in their story. Overall I was fairly disappointed by Mother's Little Helpers which is a shame as you can really see the passion they put into making this. I would have loved to see more emotional weight to the consequences of the film as well as more satisfying arcs for some of the side characters.