Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway are two of the best actors of this generation, capable of elevating each film they act in. They were previously cast together in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, although the film’s incredible design meant they were barely in a scene together. Benoît Delhomme’s Mother’s Instinct—a remake of Olivier Masset-Depasse’s 2018 Belgian thriller—thankfully doesn’t do that. (Also Read: Best Acting Performances of 2024: From Fahadh Faasil in Awesham to Kani Kushruti in All We Imagine as Light)
Base
Both actors play next-door neighbors whose lives are intertwined with crime, tragedy, and manipulation. The complex has it all: pageantry, costumes and the cycle of melodrama. But alas, the result is that the film is too bleak, too heavy-handed, and a little too serious for its own good.
Celine (Anne Hathaway) and Alice (Jessica Chastain) are suburban housewives who become best friends, understanding each other’s dreams and moods like long-lost sisters. Given how fragile her condition once was, Alice gets along well, and Céline provides her with capable support – two women who share the joys and anxieties of motherhood. Their pitch-perfect life collapses with the shocking death of Celine’s son Max (Bélan de Bielitz), who slips and falls from the balcony of their home. Alice blames herself, and Celine is no longer able to cope.
This devastating loss shatters the domestic idyll of Céline and Alice’s life. Celine’s husband Damien (Josh Charles) takes to the bottle, and their relationship grows a little worse with each passing day. Her depression threatens to ruin the facade that the neighbors try to remove months later, even as Alice can’t figure out how to save a friend.
what works
Alice has her own worries along the way, which become all the more real when she realizes that Selene may be plotting something more sinister behind those blank stares. Her husband Simon (Anders Danielsen Lee) does not believe her. Is she daydreaming? Can this be true?
Mother’s Instinct has so much potential to become one of those campy, highly entertaining but morbid psychoplots of the year that deserves a perfect rewatch. However, the narration lacks nuance and a keen eye for character. The tone, often punctuated with brightly lit frames of light-colored costumes, is sure to stretch this melodrama to its most engaging potential.
final thoughts
Jessica Chastain is wonderful in the ungrateful role and makes Alice’s fragility her greatest weapon. She is beautifully matched by Hathaway’s extremely sharp assessment of Celine – a woman who is slowly losing her sense of herself. I wish he’d had a chance to be more dramatic with these roles; These women had all the ingredients to spread filth like Joan Crawford-Bette Davis. However, it lacks the killer instinct of the Hitchcockian thriller.
Still, Mother’s Instinct manages to be a willingly safe melodrama that gathers its dust without much trouble.
Mother’s Instinct is now available to watch on Lionsgate Play.
