Mothers and Daughters (2016) User Reviews

Mothers and Daughters: a somehow Pointless but Uplifting Comedy.

[niutta-enrico · 6/10 · 8 May 2016]

It's a fresh Comedy, cheering and entertaining. The plot is not original but inspired enough not to leave you disappointed: you'll be easily able to foresee what's coming next but this isn't exactly a pity, if you stop and think about it for a second, in this kind of flicks.

The film doesn't offer any new or deep insight about maternal love: it just celebrates it and in doing so it leaves the impression that the story, in the end, is pointless.

The overall design reminded me of 'Love Actually (2003)' with the remarkable difference that that movie was mainly about males (plus some beautiful women). Here is the opposite.

Feels a lot like a 'Lifetime Movie of the Week'!

[Hellmant · 4/10 · 26 August 2016]

'MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS': Two Stars (Out of Five)

An indie drama flick; about the lives of several different mothers, and their daughters (told in interwoven stories). The film was directed by first time feature filmmakers Paul Duddridge and Nigel Levy; and it was written by Paige Cameron, also making her feature film debut, and Duddridge ('based on a concept by'). It stars Selma Blair, Mira Sorvino, Sharon Stone, Courteney Cox, Christina Ricci, Alexandra Daniels, Susan Sarandon and Eva Amurri (Sarandon's real life daughter, playing her daughter in the film). The movie received really poor reviews from critics, and this is one film I definitely agree with them on.

The movie tells the story of many different women, struggling with real world problems. These problems include work, men, and family relationships. The film (obviously) centers on the relationships between the mothers and their daughters (of course). All of the stories are interwoven, and many are shown through the photography of Rigby Grey (Blair); who is an expecting mother herself.

While the cast is all extremely talented, their performances here are pretty weak; obviously due to a terrible script, and really bad directing. The filmmakers are all amateurs, and it shows, but the directors do have a great deal of TV experience, and that shows as well. The movie feels a lot like a 'Lifetime Movie of the Week'; and that's really sad, given all of the good actresses involved. The film obviously had good intentions, and movies focusing on real women (and their daily struggles) are really rare, so it's disappointing that this film misses it's mark (so excessively).

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/lcZBQp0HBZg

She is not my aunt

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 30 August 2017]

This is a story of the relationships of five mothers and daughters that are not perfect. They all live in the same apartment building and this is similar to the semi-anthology films that take the names of holidays and try to come across as something clever and with a heart warming message. This film is no different.

Rigby (Selma Blair) is a photographer who loves black and white so it always looks artsy. We don't see much of her mother. Georgina (Mira Sorvino) is a bra designer. Gayle (Eva Amurri Martino) left her parents to help her man Kevin ( Paul Wesley) follow his dream. Layla (Alexandra Daniels) is a designer who wants to do things on her own and not take a handout from her mom (Sharon Stone). And Rebecca (Christina Ricci) well....her relationship to her mother is just so messed, it is not believable, although I am sure someone will tell me it happened to them.

The problem with the film is that it tries too hard to create feel good situations by creating faux drama, it felt forced. We never get attached to the characters long enough to feel anything with the

Uggghhh

[lifeiknowgamo · 1/10 · 17 October 2016]

I really wanted to like this movie because it's an important theme and "should" be an emotional journey but 30 minutes in and it's getting almost impossible for me to even want to finish watching it. There is no emotional depth, the actors (all of them) are just cold and distant (and not in an intentional way); it's just very poorly acted. I have yet to get to a scene where Susan Sarandon is in; so I'm hoping she is the saving grace as we all now she can deliver an emotional performance (Stepmom). But damn this is so poorly acted. It's such a shame because it could've been a great movie based on the story-line but the delivery is not there at all.

Lifetime has better shows

[rogerdozier · 2/10 · 24 August 2018]

I read a review that said something like this was a lifetime channel movie but no it's not. It goes nowhere, very boring

Boy, this was bad!!!!

[nadialamas-96729 · 1/10 · 10 August 2016]

I don't understand how people can enjoy and give stars to a movie like this. Everything is so poor, there are lots of clichés in a very, very poor story(?), the actresses call your attention for the unsuccessful cosmetic surgeries rather than for their performances... watching this movie was a real suffering for me and my husband, we can't remember other movies as bad as this one.

In fact we wanted to watch The Meddler but didn't know the name of the movie, so we looked for Susan Sarandon in IMDb and her last movie was this one. As we knew the movie was about a mother/daughter relationship we ended up watching Mothers and daughters by mistake. What a big mistake! While The Meddler seems to be funny and intelligent, Mothers and daughters is totally pointless and heavily boring.

Apparently Hollywood writers are missing good ideas, so here is my contribution: they could write about what makes beautiful women undergo unfortunate cosmetic procedures that make them look pathetic, not younger.

Very touching

[Gordon-11 · 8 June 2016]

This film tells the stories of several mothers and daughters, and the complicated relationships between them because of their various difficult circumstances.

Given the low ratings, I have not expected "Mothers and Daughters" to be so intensely touching. The stories include pregnancy, adoption, termination of pregnancy and being estranged from the mothers. Just about every possibility of motherhood is covered, and it does so brilliantly. There were many scenes that touched me deeply to the point of tears, such as the two heartfelt confessional monologues by the underwear designer, Susan Sarandon's heart melting speech and the whole subplot with Christina Ricci. I hope more people can watch it, and see how touching the stories are.

Worth while watching till the end, don't let the first 20 minutes fool you

[caseycollopen · 7/10 · 9 June 2016]

It sure took a while to ease into the movie. For you thinking what's going on and how does all of this connect..eventually you get with the flow of the movie and get the hang of it. It involves a couple families with mother and daughter problems and with the main woman ,Rigsby, you see how she makes her hard decision on whether or not to have a child on her own. Quite inspiring there. I actually quite enjoyed watching it with my mom. Very sweet and heartfelt, don't judge so harsh and quickly. Can be, for some, a 'tearjerker' so good idea to keep some tissues handy. Only 90 minutes long, don't judge at first site! Many people didn't finish watching this movie and so they rated it terribly.

None so boring

[janetgunther · 1/10 · 1 August 2016]

If the first 15 minutes doesn't do it for you, press eject. I kept watching because of the two good reviews. I thought I would get this great reward at the end for suffering. But that's all I did was suffer through a boring movie.

There are several well noted actresses doing this D- movie. I don't think there is a more boring movie with this many good actresses in it. This movie belongs on the Lifetime channel, maybe. The writing is poor, the story line is barely breathing. Everything else is typical for a lifetime channel movie. I don't understand why there are good reviews for this movie. There is no special ending, no gotcha moment, it is wrong to have this many great actresses doing such a bad movie.

An entertaining movie that didn't deserve all the bad reviews

[ComedyFan2010 · 7/10 · 3 July 2017]

I must say I don't get why this movie is scored so low among audience and professional reviewers. I really did enjoy it. It isn't a funny movie, but it isn't listed as a comedy but as drama, so it is not misleading anyone.

I liked it because it is not very sensationalist and it is one of the movies that concentrates more on the feelings of people rather than actions. There are a lot of great small stories which all explore the relationships of mothers and daughters in a different way.

The cast of this movie is full with stars. One pretty much knows every person on the list. At least when it comes to the female actresses. And they don't disappoint when it comes to acting. I didn't recognize Mira Sorvino at all. And even after reading her name I had trouble seeing her in the actress. But then I think I remember her from about 20 years ago. Was also great to see Sharon Stone again. She was awesome.

Susan Sarandon plays the mother of her real life daughter, Eva Amurri Martino. Her performance is just one scene which was shot on Skype, of course as usual great acting. It is actually interesting how the movie shows all the characters constantly talking on video chats. it is part of modern life which shows constant keeping in touch yet distance.

One thing I didn't like was Selma Blair's romance. The way it developed and what he said towards the end....Jeez, seemed like some teenage girl wrote a fiction fairy tale.

And since there are so many stories there isn't much we get from them. i wish I could watch the whole movie about Courtney Cox and Christina's Ricci's part.

Still glad I watched the movie, it even made me cry. Mainly the moment of grandma's letter. it was so well written.

Utter crap

[sophiahwright · 3/10 · 13 April 2019]

Don't bother, seriously. It was so bad. Nothing really happened. I have no idea how they roped Susan Sarandon into this movie

Worth going through a rocky beginning to experience a profound and tasteful ending

[ichibancritic · 10/10 · 10 May 2016]

At first one wonders what the hell is happening. Indeed, the first 20 mn is fragile and a little chaotic, trying to find it's pace and purpose. When suddenly, a true poignant dramatic scene embodied by C. Ricci's beautiful performance echoes with all the rest of a refined and all-star cast, isolated in different segments. The movie then manages to elegantly transmit a highly universal presentation of what it is to Mother in a strong, impacting and profound manner. In the end, the spectator has experienced a humble, innovative and grounded cinematic expression about a universal theme: motherhood from beginning to end, a thing called LIFE!

I can't help to wonder if bad reviewers have indeed watch the movie until the end...

Has the feel of a higher budget Lifetime movie that, for me at least, wasn't a hardship to watch.

[cosmo_tiger · 6/10 · 4 June 2016]

"If I'm gonna do this then I need to know what I'm really capable of." Four stories of the relationships between mothers and daughters are explored in this movie. The stories involve deception, adoption, abortion, re-connection and of course love. This is a hard movie for me to review, mainly because I am a man, and a father. Not saying that I can't relate to this movie, or these stories, but because it had the feel of a Lifetime type movie and it just isn't my thing. This was better quality, and had a better cast than most of those type of movies but the overall idea and feel felt like it could have been on that channel. The acting is actually really good and everyone plays their part perfectly, which really adds to the emotion the movie is trying for. Even though the movie wasn't aimed toward me it wasn't bad, but a movie that women, mothers and daughters, will love a lot more than me I think. Overall, has the feel of a higher budget Lifetime movie that, for me at least, wasn't a hardship to watch. I give this a B.

A Soap Opera that thinks its a movie

[Haddonfield7 · 1/10 · 18 May 2016]

This movie is a soap opera that thinks it is a movie. From the very first scene we are hit in the face with wordy, run on drama that never stops. The next scene then introduces a moody, wordy couple, and so does the next scene, and the scene after that. We eventually end up with a cafeteria of moody, wordy, argumentative, frowning characters who each take their turns being moody, wordy, argumentative and frowning.

This IS a soap opera. We have the unhappy couple, the person finding out they are adopted, the person dying in a hospital, the fighting over a funeral/will, the person who finds out they are pregnant and the drama goes on and on. Seriously, one could have a drinking game downing shots whenever someone (especially guys) suddenly break into tears. Even the kid characters aren't spared the pained past stain to their dialogue.

I don't know where this was filmed but on that planet the people live in perfect homes without dust or signs of wear. AGAIN, just like a soap opera.

I honestly do not see how this screenplay managed to secure such a famous and talented cast. However, they are utterly wasted here. It is impossible to like anyone because you can't get to know them. They are always talking, talking, talking. Or crying. Or talking to their computers. God, if someone had a pet in this movie I am sure the screen writer would have written a scene with them having a ten minute, tear filled scene on the floor with it. The cast deserved better to work with.

This should have been a soap opera named PMS Hospital.

Not much a story

[dar0417 · 4/10 · 11 May 2020]

Film had some entertaining moments but not really much of a story. It has a lot of famous people that seemed like a waste of talent.

Bigger love

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 16 February 2017]

Not every movie has to be a highlight. Some can just be decent movies that have a more or less good feeling about them. This is one of them. It's about ... well the title is a bit of a give away isn't it? And yes you can expect drama to ensue. That's life and that's what this movie will be about. Question is: Is this the kind of movie you want to watch or are you looking for something more exciting? That's totally up to you then.

The actors do a good job and if you "like" watching life unfolding and get invested easily in characters you will have a good time watching this. With all it's highs and lows, you probably won't care about it lacking the something special. Buf if you do, don't be too harsh with this

Utter rubbish

[GarrickLHamm · 1/10 · 14 May 2016]

No screenwriters were harmed or used in the making of terrible film. I don't usually write reviews but I want save others from this utter rubbish. Right from the start you know you are in for an awful film, too many bad actors to care about, terrible, over the top acting. Everyone communicates via apple face time, ( perhaps they read the script and couldn't be arsed to turn up and everyone is going through a terrible time, until the last 2 mins, and all is forgiven. Champagne? but the girl who is about to terminate her baby, is saved by a overly handsome, pasta eating doctor, who doesn't really have wife and kids, has fallen for a pregnant, not so talented photographer, who looks like she hasn't slept for a month - really. Cinderella has more realism. Sharon Stone, as ever, is great. Never trust a film with lots of stars in, you have never heard of. Because everyone buried it, and so they shroud.

Felt Rushed....

[cgenevievej · 6/10 · 13 September 2020]

This story has so much potential and it didn't deliver. I wish they would've taken the time to fully develop the characters and their story lines and to wrap things up a little more realistically. Too many missing links and opportunities to really hit this one home. I also wish that women would've directed this film. There are a few mothers & daughters in the film business - and they should have worked on it together.

The ups and downs of mother/daughter relationships

[gradyharp · 5/10 · 11 August 2016]

Two directors – Paul Duddrudge who is responsible for the concept of the film (written for the screen by Paige Cameron) and Nigel Levy – are part of the problem of this slight film: if two men are directing a story about several dysfunctional mother/daughter relationships they could easily be the reason the film is so confusingly disjointed.

To write a review about the stories in this film would inevitably result in spoilers, if enough facts were strung together to make sense of this mélange. About all that is safe to state is that 'the story is focused on a rock photographer Rigby Gray (Selma Blair) who is riding a career high when an unlikely and unexpected pregnancy forces her to turn her lens inward and see her relationship with her estranged mother with fresh eyes. Through a series of photographs documenting motherhood in all its varieties, she considers what it means to be maternal.

Sounds interesting but what gets in the way is the lack of connection between the girls and their mothers – most were either abandoned at birth (or threatening to repeat that gesture with a D&C) or were lied to by their mother about their birth mother, or they're searching for a face to face with a child they haven't seen for years. And to say more would ruin what little suspense there is in what is termed a comedy (!).

At times frustrating, at times touching, the actors include (no spoilers here) Selma Blair, Susan Sarandon, Eva Amurri Martino, Christina Ricci, Sharon Stone, Courteney Cox, Mira Sorvino, Paul Wesley, Christopher Backus, Paul Adelstein, the very promising Luke Mitchell, Alexandra Daniels, Dave Baez, and many, many more.

Some good thoughts, here, but too dissociative to pull off a meaningful film.

The women's perspective, about the women's troubles!

[Reno-Rangan · 6/10 · 24 November 2016]

It seems like a sequel to the recent film 'Fathers & Daughters'. But it was not and the narration had multiple layers. The stories of mothers and daughters, about their relationship and other related things. A feature film directional debut for the television filmmakers. Based on no book, but an original screenplay. The problem was the confusing narration, all the characters, too many of them stuffed together. Even the editing was not that convincing, though the actors were really good.

A hard hitting, women oriented film as the title hints. Takes time to feel comfortable, but worth a wait. Focused on topics like pregnancy and other troubles in life, but all are concerned between women. So it's not a romance, but at the end, it ends as one. There are men too, though they doesn't count, hence no big names of the male actors. There's no big issue with the film, except it looks like neither theatrical or television film, but comes between them. At least some people would appreciate the effort, but most won't, particularly film critics didn't like it. So I believe you will make a right choice on this.

6/10

Nope

[kateAraya715 · 2/10 · 17 September 2020]

Unless you want to watch a b-production of drivel and ask yourself "what's the point?" a hundred times in the first 10 minutes, don't bother. I couldn't get past the first 30 minutes and I NEVER EVER don't follow through. I was just feeling so bad for the actresses that I adore having to put themselves through the pain of FOLLOWING THROUGH on their obvious pity-yes movie. A pity-yes (yes. I made it up) but a pity-yes is when you see an awesome actress in a god-awful piece of crapollini and know they said yes to their buddy who was trying to make a movie ad bd knew their famous friends could t say no. Pity pity pity-yes is a big fat NOPE. Bad direction. Stiff and amateurish-like acting. A WGAF plot. And I think the film itself is all wrong - like wAtching a soap opera with the shaky camera bit to go with it.

Sorry Courtney. You rock. The movie Sux. 🙏🏻

The ugly, the bad, and the good of mother-daughter relationships.

[TxMike · 6 September 2016]

My wife and I watched this movie on Netflix streaming and enjoyed it. I am a bit puzzled why it has such a low rating, but I see as of now 9% of the votes are "1" which cannot be supported in any analysis of the movie.

In other words, it is a better movie than its current rating would suggest.

As the title suggests it focuses on a variety of different types of mother-daughter relationships. And on a couple of women who find themselves pregnant and will soon be mothers, perhaps with daughters.

This movie really has an all-star cast and they do very well. There aren't any simple issues with simple resolutions. A grown daughter seeking to meet her birth mother who gave her up for adoption as an infant. A grown woman who finds that he mother is really her grandmother. A woman who has to make a decision on keeping an unplanned pregnancy or get an abortion. And a couple of others.

One mother-daughter pair are mother-daughter in real life. One married couple are married in real life with four children. Overall an interesting and well-presented set of stories, slices of life.

Heartfelt Movie

[luctonne · 10/10 · 2 August 2021]

I'm not ashamed to say that those who gave such bad reviews, have no heart. This is a deeply touching movie performed by great actors ! These are things that happen in real life and there are lessons to be learned.

Great actors...you'd never know seeing this movie

[DrettmannC · 2/10 · 16 January 2021]

Can't believe how void of emotion this movie is for covering the themes it does. The acting is downright horrible, the story lines are dry, predictable, and when they're not predictable they're downright ridiculous! Waste of time

Refreshing mother/daughter movie

[cerikabladh · 8/10 · 5 August 2022]

I love that this movie embraces and encourages family. The films today consciously and subconsciously deter people from those values. This one shows that families can be hard, take work and aren't perfect but they can bring happiness that can't be found else where.