The Good Mother

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6 years in the making? Felt like it was written and rushed through direction over the course of 2 weeks, along with the title. We just don't have enough "The good this, and The Good that" out there, so why not another one. Some parts of this were truly impactful and helped to establish relatable characters and situations. Unfortunately, quite a few head-scratcher moments where clumsy writing would expel me right out from that plausible experience and cause an eyeroll or headshake- including the totally obvious and done a million times over twist play. Some of the more frustrating and pedestrian issues I can't reveal without spoilers. There is no question that Hillary Swank and Olivia Cooke have the talent, but I felt the overall story plot devices were shallow, and it prevented this from being satisfying. I won't remember this in the sea of The Good Whatevers after tomorrow.

This had the potential to be a great movie, but it failed. Started out great. Show the addiction from one parent to the child, how that can happen. Then it just kind of lost it from there. Went into the stereotypical cop as a drug dealer thing. After that you could just tell what was going to happen in every part of the movie. As the main character being a newspaper writer, I thought they were going to use that as to somehow writing about her son's addiction, her addiction or what it feels like to lose a child. But it didn't go there, at least not till the end of the movie. Then nothing. The end.

Director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte's decent little crime drama "The Good Mother" is spoiled by the screenplay he co-wrote with Madison Harrison (their second such collaboration) having too obvious a 'twist' and too ambiguous an ending. In 2016 Albany, hard drinking journalist Hilary Swank loses her youngest son (an addict) to an apparently drug-related drive-by shooting - which she gets drawn into investigating with his pregnant girlfriend Olivia Cooke (good) and her other son Jack Reynor (always good) who's a cop (married to Dilone). Facts & loyalties fudge as the simple tale winds to its conclusion, which is ultimately, as said... too ambiguous.

Purchased last week just got around to watching - the movie is the journey of a mom...navigating the truth of her sons addiction ... only to be forced to make a decision that will either save or ruin her family. The movie is great and the critics are just plain wrong. Watch it. What would you do? Purchased last week just got around to watching - the movie is the journey of a mom...navigating the truth of her sons addiction ... only to be forced to make a decision that will either save or ruin her family. The movie is great and the critics are just plain wrong. Watch it. What would you do? Watch it twice to pick up all the stuff you missed the first time.

Who approved of this movie going into production? The script is absurdly predictable. Without seeing trailer or reading any info, after the cop brother takes the kilo from the kitchen table it is instantly obvious who is involved in what schemes and exactly who is corrupt. Though Olivia Cooke's terrible big black wig does become quite distracting when some scenes she wears it, walks indoors and then has her natural hair in the scene. Maybe the other scenes were reshoots? But it was So Distracting. Now the foolish decisions that character after character make that ultimately result in each characters demise are also distracting. Such as, if you are chased by a car on a road with buildings and yards and parked cars on each side, pro tip: don't jog in a straight line after seeing and hearing the loudly unique engine a block away on a narrowing road without any zigzag or jump over a fence or darting behind a parked car. If you find a just murdered dead guy, pro tip: don't lollygag after you find his phone by looking thru it when you know you should just take it and flee double quick. When you are in a cops house and randomly decide to start dialing numbers with said murdered guys phone, pro tip: when a number you dial results in a phone ringing down in basement below dont Go Looking for the phone itself downstairs when you don't need to possess it for evidence then go downstairs trapping yourself. These foolish plot points could've been handled much better, easily.

Marissa Bennings (Hilary Swank) loves alcohol, and tobacco, and hates life. She works as a journalist for the Albany Times Union. Her ex-husband cop Toby (Jack Reynor) informs her that their son Michael has died. They became estranged when he started stealing from her to support his drug habit. At the funeral, she runs into Paige (Olivia Cooke) who is Michael's pregnant girlfriend. They are determined to find his drive-by killer. They get help from an eyewitness, one who can see a tattoo on a hand momentarily hanging out a window while shooting a gun. Ducky (Hopper Penn) Michael's best friend is a person of interest. The protagonist is not a likable person. Marissa is bitter and stays that way throughout a film that leaves one hanging. Did not like the ending. Boring. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.