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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
In honor of Mother’s Day, we thought it would be fun to compile a list of some of the best and worst moms to ever grace the silver screen. Be sure to check out some of these films on DVD to see how your mom stacks up to the best or, in the case of the bad moms, how good you really had it!
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Though we never got a chance to truly meet her on the screen, we definitely got to see Mamma Bates’ influence over her son Norman in this Hitchcock classic. This overbearing mother put so much pressure on her baby boy that he snapped, killing her and taking over as “Mother” to suppress his own guilt. Psycho initially recived mixed reviews from critics, but is now seen as one of the most effective horror films ever made.
Remembered more as a political thriller than a bad mom movie, The Manchurian Candidate had one of the most diabolical mothers ever dreamed up. Angela Lansbury played a manipulative witch, pulling the strings of her own brainwashed son (Frank Sinatra) to further her husband’s political career. Lansbury’s cold, calculating performance earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The Manchurian Candidate was remade in 2004 and Meryl Streep got a chance to try her hand at being a very bad mommy. While the performances are pretty good in the remake, the original is by far the better of the two.
Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson! The naughty older woman (Anne Bancroft) takes advantage of the naivety of an awkward college graduate (Dustin Hoffman), only to be rebuffed by her lover when he falls for her daughter (Katharine Ross). Now that’s an uncomfortable love triangle.
The mother of all bad mother movies, Faye Dunaway plays Joan Crawford, an Academy-Award winning actress with a hidden alcohol problem that sends her flying off the handle at the slightest provocation. The film chronicles the abuses Crawford’s adopted daughter, Christina, outlined in her bestselling exposé of the same name. After seeing Mommie Dearest, you’ll never look at wire hangers the same way again.
On the lighter side of bad moms is Serial Mom, a hilarious John Waters flick about a loving, caring mother who just happens to be a serial killer. Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) is a seemingly normal suburban mom who picks off those who stand in the way of her happiness in a variety of over-the-top ways. From hot pokers to legs of lamb, Beverly is a resourceful woman who always gets her way in this campy comedy.
Sure, Mrs. Jumbo was an elephant. So what? This was a mom who did everything right. She protected her child when she had to, she loved her baby unconditionally and she stuck by him until the very end. And, if the ‘Baby Mine’ scene doesn’t make you teary, nothing will!
If you’ve ever wanted to walk in someone else’s shoes for a day, this is the film you need to see. When a quarreling mother (Barbara Harris) and daughter (Jodie Foster) find themselves in each other’s bodies, the two get a rude awakening. While both the child and the mother do things wrong in this clever Disney classic, the film shows a mom willing to make changes in the way she parents. The updated version starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis is actually just as good as the original (and because of Ms. Lohan, you may be able to get your daughter to watch it with you!).
Terms of Endearment proves that mothers can sometimes be overbearing, but it’s because they have their children’s best interests at heart, at least in their own minds. Aurora (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger) have a strained relationship that only gets worse when Emma marries a man her mother doesn’t approve of. The film follows their lives as they go through the ebbs and flows of the complex mother/daughter relationship, leading at last to a heartbreaking conclusion that truly shows a mother’s love.
Another tearjerker, Steel Magnolias is the ultimate chick flick, filled with female friendships and mother/daughter relationships. Sally Field plays M’Lynn, the matriarch of a family that is preparing for their daughter Shelby’s (Julia Roberts) wedding. Over the course of the film, their happiness turns to tragedy and M’Lynn proves that her love for her daughter surpasses all understanding.
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