Mommy (2014) on Netflix
Diane Després, 46 and widowed, takes her son Steve, fifteen, out of an institution to their home in Saint-Hubert. Steve can turn violent, and he has ADHD and an attachment disorder.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb8.0/1066,165 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Three years after her husband's death, Diane Després, called Die, lives in Saint-Hubert with her fifteen-year-old son Steve. A facility discharges Steve to her after he sets a fire in a cafeteria that leaves another youth injured. He lives with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and an attachment disorder, and shouting matches with his mother are routine. Die, an advice columnist, works from home and wants to keep him away from more restrictive detention. Across the street lives Kyla, a high school teacher on sabbatical who stutters when her life overwhelms her and who moved to the area with her husband Patrick and their daughter. After a violent scene at home, Kyla comes over to tend Steve's wounds and starts tutoring him.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mommy (2014)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dolan shot Mommy handheld in a rare 1:1 square aspect ratio, where most modern films use 1.85:1 or 2.35:1; he called the square format "a more humble and private format" and said Cinemascope would have been "extremely pretentious and incompatible" for the film.
- Xavier Dolan wrote Mommy's screenplay despite saying he had never known a person with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or the behavioural disorders his teenage character Steve exhibits; his own mother inspired his writing instead.
- The film's S-14 law, which lets parents transfer custody of troubled children to the state, was inspired by an article Dolan read about a mother who used a law to transfer custody of a child to the state, though he could not recall which country it happened in.
- Ludovico Einaudi's song "Experience" inspired Dolan to write a scene about a mother fantasizing about a future with her son that will never come to be, and he then wrote Mommy's story around it.
- Mommy premiered on 22 May 2014 at the Cannes Film Festival, and the screening concluded with a 13-minute standing ovation.
