Film review: Mother (1996)

Just a quickie, because we watched this a couple of nights ago.  We watched it because it's leaving the Criterion Channel at the end of the month, and it's Albert Brooks.  We actually saw it at the time, but it's funny watching it again and recognizing Lisa Kudrow, Rob Morrow and John C. McGinley.  But the main thing I'm surprised at is how good it is.  I liked it better than his more famous ones (like Defending Your Life, which has Meryl Streep in it (and which Jami and I stumbled into the shooting of in Exposition Park)) and Debbie Reynolds is absolutely transcendent in it.  It's also interesting in that it's the kind of film they literally do not make any more.  It looks more cheaply made than most episodes of prestige TV these days (I guarantee, for example, that one episode of (say) The Americans would cost way more to make).  It's incredibly small-scale and small-stakes, and refreshing for that.  Essentially Albert Brooks plays a moderately successful science fiction writer who is getting his second divorce as the picture opens.  He goes out for a drink with John C. McGinley (either before or after a disastrous date with Lisa Kudrow) and they work out that he was attracted to women who don't believe in him, which, they agree, is not ideal.  After a phone call with his mother (Debbie Reynolds, duh) he thinks he's got the answer: go and live in his old room at her house and work through the issues they have.  That's it!  That and some comedy with his younger, more successful agent brother (Rob Morrow) and you have the whole film.  Small scale humorous bickering with his mother who loves him really but (it emerges) resents him because the children killed her writing ambitions.  There are some lovely lines and in general it's a feel-good yet witty film that I heartily recommend to anyone, especially if you're a bit down in the dumps.