Bring together two stars like Jessica Chastain y Anne Hathaway in an adaptation of a European film is a strong bet, attractive to international audiences, not just in the United States.
Especially when you smell that there is something Hitchcockian, which is not the music, because in Maternal Instinct it is inconsequential, but because of the suspicions of two friends and neighbors, who lived a peaceful life in some suburb in the ’60s.
Until, of course, something happens.
Based on the novel Behind the hatredby Barbara Abel, and in the film Duels, by Olivier Masset-DePasse, the protagonists are Céline (Hathaway) and Alice (Chastain), who not only dress fashionably, but whose families are almost mirror images. Céline, with her husband, the health visitor Damian (Josh Charles), and Alice with Simon (Anders Danielsen Lie). Each one has a child, but look what a coincidence, of the same age: 8 years old, so, of course, they go to the same school and the same classroom.
Little by little, the climate will begin to thicken and data is thrown at the viewer that will later have importance, they will be like springs of history.
But they saw that the springs can be short or long. Those of Maternal Instinct stay halfway.
No, it’s not a bad movie, it’s a bit flawed, because honestly everything looked like it would give a better result.
The curious thing is that the director of the original film, the Belgian Olivier Masset-Depasse, was going to direct the Hollywood remake, but for reasons that are unknown or undisclosed, he dropped out. And the one who ended up directing the film was the Frenchman Benoit Delhomme, who was only going to be in charge of the direction of photography. Well, Tsai Ming Liang’s collaborator or illuminator of The theory of everything debuts with this suspenseful social drama, let’s say, so as not to label it directly as a thriller.
There are phrases that one character cannot say to another, especially if they are friends or a couple. “You are losing contact with reality” or “I should have admitted you again” are not to gain the other’s empathy, but quite the opposite.
The suspicion
The Hitchcockian of Maternal instinct, we said at the beginning, goes through those suspicions that the other is responsible for something. In that way it looks like another suspense movie, with suspicions and the word Instinct in the title (Based Instincts).
A film with long plots and rather brief dialogues, it’s like playing Mistrust with two big stars whose roles are short, very short. At times, bombastic phrases are heard, such as “God knows that sometimes I lose control,” as Alice says, and someone says that he knows how to separate pain and guilt.
What you need to know is to separate a loose script of papers in time.
Drama / Suspense United States, 2024. Original title: “Mothers’ Instinct”. 94’, SAM 16. Of: Benoit Delhomme. Con: Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Josh Charles, Anders Danielsen Lie. Salas: Hoyts Abasto and Dot, Cinemark Palermo, Cinépolis Recoleta and Pilar, Showcase Belgrano and Norcenter.