The Big Picture

Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway headline an enthralling yet forgettable drama that disappoints with a predictable twist.
The film’s uneven tone and narrative direction detract from strong performances by Hathaway and Chastain.

Mothers’ Instinct
initially explores grief and mental illness effectively but falters with a jarring, unsatisfying ending.

For the girls and gays around the world, seeing Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway go toe-to-toe in a ‘60s-set drama is how I’d imagine people felt the first time Godzilla took on Kong. Two titans of the industry, each with their own Oscar and several nominations, dressed in Jackie-esque outfits as they fix cocktails and pretend they aren’t on the brink of mental collapse, sounds like what cinema was created for… on paper. French filmmaker Benoît Delhomme’s Mothers’ Instinct is a remake of the 2018 French film by the same name (Duelle in French), which was loosely based on the 2012 novel, Behind the Hatred (Derrière la haine in French) by Barbara Abel.

Having two of the most talented actresses working today headlining a tense drama sounds like the recipe for Oscar notoriety. Yet, the release of Mothers Instinct hasn’t followed the usual awards bait formula. The movie’s distributor, Neon, has released Cannes winners and Oscar triumphs over the decade, making Mothers’ Instinct’s limited release and no festival presence all the more perplexing. A quiet release in Europe followed by an even quieter limited run in the U.S. months later with a sparse press tour may make you think that the producers are trying to sweep a dud under the rug. However, Mothers Instinct isn’t a star-studded failure of epic proportions à la Don’t Worry Darling. It’s an entertaining drama with strong acting but a disappointing and predictable twist in the third act that renders all the human drama up until then pointless. The biggest sin of the film is that it’s fairly forgettable both in the grand scheme of cinema as well as its respective stars’ filmographies.

Mothers’ Instinct Release Date 2024-00-00 Director Benoît Delhomme Runtime 94 minutes Writers Sarah Conradt-Kroehler Studio(s) studiocanal , Mosaic Film , Anton Distributor(s) Neon Expand

What Is ‘Mothers’ Instinct’ About?
In 1960s suburban white picket fence America, just as JFK is running for president, Céline (Hathaway), her husband Damian (Dead Poets Society’s Josh Charles), and their eight-year-old son Max live an idyllic life in their grand house with a porch and balcony wrapping around. Their neighbors and best friends are the nervous mother Alice (Chastain), her husband Simon (Worst Person in the World’s Anders Danielsen Lie), and their son Theo who is Max’s best friend. The families carpool and throw birthday parties for each other, with their sons inseparable. Céline supports Alice’s desire to return to work as a journalist and eases her nerves when Alice is convinced that Theo has eaten peanut butter cookies when he has a fatal allergy to peanuts. It’s a comfortable, middle-class life with just enough space left for utter destruction to make its way in.

One day when Alice is gardening, she sees Max standing on the edge of the balcony of his house trying to hang a birdhouse. Alice runs to the house where Céline is none the wiser but they are too late; Max has fallen to his death. Céline initially pushes Alice away and Alice is left believing that her friend blames her for her son’s death. After Céline is sent away to a psychiatric hospital, she comes back like a Stepford wife until she faints and breaks down to Alice, apologizing for blaming her and pushing her away. The two families try to repair their friendship, but Theo keeps saying the wrong thing and Damian won’t come out of his room. Céline and Theo form a particular kinship, bonding over their shared trauma and grief.

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Then, a string of incidents sets Alice spiraling as she becomes convinced that Céline is out to make her life miserable. From Theo standing on the balcony to another untimely death, Alice is determined to prove that her former best friend has a vendetta against her. This is all set within the context of 1960s Americana forcing women to think that any thought apart from meatloaf, cocktails, and sex makes them broken, with Alice having a history of anxiety and post-natal depression. No one believes her, including her conflicted husband, and it becomes increasingly difficult for the audience to decipher who is telling the truth. Every occurrence is so odd that Alice’s ranting and raving must have some truth, but the cool, calm, and collected Céline always holds a butter wouldn’t melt smile. Is Céline a killer who wants to avenge her son by destroying the life of the woman she deems responsible? Or is Alice’s untreated mental illness causing her to make her best friend’s life even more unbearable than it already is?

The First Half of ‘Mothers’ Instinct’ Is a Flawed but Compelling Drama

Mothers’ Instinct gets off on the right foot, as it focuses on the fallout of an unspeakable tragedy. In the wake of such devastation, we start to see the cracks in these two families’ oh-so-perfect lives. Alice’s history of mental illness, which of course has not been treated properly because it’s the ‘60s and everyone knows postnatal depression is a myth, collides with Céline’s increasingly odd behavior. Seeing how grief and trauma can cause such destruction to a community, no matter how small or big, is where the film’s heart is, and it should have stayed that way. If we spent the rest of the runtime seeing the damage to one’s mind and how we can all gaslight ourselves (and others) into thinking unimaginable things, especially in a time and place where no one wanted to have candid conversations, it would have made for a straightforward but decent drama.

However, Mothers’ Instinct just can’t decide what film it wants to be, resulting in an uneven tone that affects everything, from the performances to the pacing. It starts to simmer into a Hitchcockian thriller of deceit, and while Delhomme masterfully creates palpable tension as one woman hides from another, it takes away from all the characterizations and personal drama that you thought was what you came for. Without spoiling the movie’s attempt at a twist and its incredibly bleak finale, Mothers’ Instinct takes such a left turn that you almost can’t help but laugh at how silly it becomes. What is this movie really trying to say? Is it the consequences of grief? The destruction of blame and guilt? Or is it just a sexy thriller that ends with action and murder? I don’t know, the audience doesn’t know, and it doesn’t seem that the cast and crew know either.

Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway Give Brilliant Performances in ‘Mothers’ Instinct’

With the tone of the movie taking all sorts of flips and turns, the aspect of the film that manages to be some sort of anchor is the cast. Hathaway’s mannerly Céline starts off as a bit too Stepford Wives-esque to root for, but once her life has been destroyed, Hathaway’s pointed, unsettling performance comes into the light and is the film’s main source of tension. You never know what’s going to be the next thing that comes out of Céline’s mouth (and eventually, what she’ll do next) and Hathaway masterfully strikes that balance of a sympathetic hero but with all the capacity to turn into a nasty little villain. While you become increasingly suspect of her, Hathaway still takes the time to remind you that Céline is a woman who has been left completely broken and devoid of any meaning in her life. She knows exactly when to tap into this sympathy from the audience to make you more mistrusting of Alice, but then, in the next scene, her shift in character is enough to give you whiplash, and you’re back to square one as to who to root for.

The movie is told from the perspective of Alice, and Chastain is an empathetic protagonist. In recent years, we’ve been used to seeing Chastain take on hardened, guarded career woman, so seeing her play a woman who is so vulnerable that she has to constantly remind herself of things she knows to be true feels like a totally different side to the actor. Chastain never plays Alice’s mental instability over the top nor does she ever make Alice feel like a caricature of a lobotomized ‘60s housewife. She’s a traumatized but strong and smart woman who has no one in her corner as her life descends into madness. Together, as they have their mother off (sorry, I had to) Hathaway and Chastain are a formidable pair. In between all the tense exchanges of pleasantries and stumbling over Freudian slips, the two women have the chance to let all social cues go and let rip, and seeing that happen is the highlight of the movie. Danielsen Lie and Charles make for competent supporting players as useless husbands, but one is better than the other. Charles represents the dark side of grief more people will be able to recognize while Simon treads that complicated line of loving his wife and being a man of his time.

Mothers’ Instinct probably would have made much larger waves if it was released in the mid-2000s. A claustrophobic, mannerly drama, it feels like part Stepford Wives and part The Hours, but still never reaching the heights of either of those movies. If it explored the characters more and didn’t try to shoehorn in a drastic twist and tragic ending, it might have come out feeling more substantial and thematic. Still, Chastain and Hathaway make it worth the watch, even if it’s nowhere close to being among the best of their works.

Mothers’ Instinct Mothers’ Instinct is an entertaining, well-acted drama that falters under the weight of its shocking ending.ProsThe first half of Mothers’ Instinct is an emotionally charged drama looking at the devastating effects of grief.Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain turn in committed performances as best friends who grow more suspicious of each other ConsThe movie feels somewhat derivative and predictable at times, failing to fully explore its themes of gender dynamics, grief, and mental illness.Its twist ending feels like a cheap gimmick, and goes against what the first half of the movie set itself up to be.

Mothers’ Instinct is now playing in limited theaters in the U.S. and is available to stream on VOD starting August 13. Click below for showtimes near you.

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