OCTOBER 21, 2014 12:28PM
Jamie Lee Curtis's Turn at Knife
MOTHER'S BOYS
Released: March 1994
Director: Yves Simoneau
Writers: Bernard Taylor, Barry Schneider, Richard Hawley
Notable Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Gallagher, Joanne Whalley, Vanessa Redgrave
Plot: Jude Madigan abandons her husband Robert and her three sons without any explanation. Three years later Jude inexplicably returns to reunite her family. However Robert and his new lover Callie see Jude for the true psychopath she is and try their best to protect their sons. Jude embarks on a non stop stalking and harassment campaign against the family, and even seduces her eldest son Kess into committing her acts of violence.(source: imdb user Volker Boehm)
Commentary: I wanted to watch Mother's Boys one for no other reason than to see Jamie Lee Curtis turn the tables and be the psycho murderer herself for a change. I wanted to see if she was as bad as her "brother", Michael Myers.
What I got instead was a highly star-powered straight-to-cable thriller, derivative of Fatal Attraction; a gender-reversed Lifetime Television for Women movie about a deranged stalking husband; or the Shannon Tweed erotic thriller of your choice.
Not that Mother's Boys lacking in fun. The cast is close to A-list (part of what makes this film psychotronic) and the performances were good. I always enjoy Peter Gallagher on screen or stage, and you can tell Jamie Lee Curtis had fun abandoning the goody-two-shoes Final Girl role and playing this deranged seductive succubus of an ex-wife and mother.
But the plot? Meh. No real scares, no real surprises. Very standard, very 90's.
Oh and there is a highly inappropriate mother/son bathtub scene. It's subtly - and not so subtly - full of ick. Perhaps it was to spare the would-be Freudian analyst within all of us from doing any work.
What We're Afraid Of: I used the word 'succubus' before, and Curtis's character was no more than the classic female trope of the vamp, seductress and insane woman seeking to drain the life of the men around her with her madness and emotions and sexuality.
And the "Van Helsing" in this instance (and many others) is the goody-two shoes steadfast wife/girlfriend to restore the social order, not the men.
We're afraid of women and their sexuality in this film. Read this excellent article from Slate, "The Psycho Bitch, From Fatal Attraction's Single Woman to Gone Girl's Perfect Wife" and you'll see that Curtis's character very neatly falls within the spectrum between Fatal Attraction and Gone Girl.
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Comments
Interesting post! And thanks for the link to Slate article, hadn't seen that and it looks like a good read.
Thank you Nick!
R&R I hope this
finds it's way into the cable playlist... BTW: Just this moment I muted
and turned my back on one of the most horrific scenes that I can barely
watch: The slime ball social worker raping Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo". Other than the scene in "The Piano," when
Alisdair returns home with an axe and cuts off Ada's index finger and
threatens to do worse, no scene in film has ever made me feel as angry.
Hi jmac - you can
actually stream it on Netflix, if you have an account. As for that
scene in "Dragon Tattoo", yes, just horrific. Did you watch the
American version or the Swedish version?
Alas I've only seen the American version... I've wondered if the Swedish film is as good as the American.
Thanks for an intriguing review. I may have to see this for psychotronic reasons.
I saw this in the 90s
when I had a movie channel. Curtis was really creepy. Had she been my
mother I would have been psyched out for life.
When I think of Shannon
Tweed, I think of hamburgers. And I think of hamburgers because
there's a photo of her and Gene Simmons hanging up at Manhattan's
burgers here in Ottawa. Every time I go for a burger there, I have to
see those two smiling along with the owner up on the wall. Sigh.
I think of hamburgers. Shanon lived in Ottawa for many years and when KISS played here a few Bluesfests ago, she saw family but the two of them were out and around ... and apparently
I think of hamburgers. Shanon lived in Ottawa for many years and when KISS played here a few Bluesfests ago, she saw family but the two of them were out and around ... and apparently
@Daniel, you should see THE PSYCHOTRONIC MAN, 1980
Rocky Foscoe is a barber living a fairly normal life, until one night he has a nightmare about a car hovering in mid-air. Rocky is filled with psychic energy, which explodes out, killing first an old man, then later his doctor. Police working the homicide cases consult a professor at the Chicago Institute of Psychology, who explains his theory that the killer has somehow tapped the latent power of his subconscious mind, which he refers to as "psychotronic energy". In addition to the police, there's also a government agent who intends to try and capture the Psychotronic Man alive to exploit him.
Rocky Foscoe is a barber living a fairly normal life, until one night he has a nightmare about a car hovering in mid-air. Rocky is filled with psychic energy, which explodes out, killing first an old man, then later his doctor. Police working the homicide cases consult a professor at the Chicago Institute of Psychology, who explains his theory that the killer has somehow tapped the latent power of his subconscious mind, which he refers to as "psychotronic energy". In addition to the police, there's also a government agent who intends to try and capture the Psychotronic Man alive to exploit him.
Whoopsy ... Made a
revision in my earlier comment and now realize I accidentally left half
of the original text in by accident. Ignore.
@jmac - oddly enough, I actually preferred the American version.
@Daniel Rigney - I'm psyched that you get "psychotronic"! Isn't that encyclopedia great?
@Abra - JLC in this movie or Joan Crawford?
@VA - hmm. Shannon Tweed - meat - Gene Simmons - meat .... It all fits my friend.
@James - sounds like a MUST WATCH.
@Daniel Rigney - I'm psyched that you get "psychotronic"! Isn't that encyclopedia great?
@Abra - JLC in this movie or Joan Crawford?
@VA - hmm. Shannon Tweed - meat - Gene Simmons - meat .... It all fits my friend.
@James - sounds like a MUST WATCH.
ah, an intellectual fan. i met jamie lee. been to her house. my bet is she's not anybody you imagine her to be.
excellent review r.
Thanks Ben Sen & JW
for commenting! Ben, by my estimation from public appearances, she
seems to be a lovely lady and a very good mom.
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