Plot
In Manhattan, a mother of two preparing for her daughter's sixth birthday party has no idea of the challenges she's about to face in order to pull off the event.

Release Year: 2009

Rating: 4.6/10 (2,245 voted)

Critic's Score: 34/100

Director: Katherine Dieckmann

Stars: Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie Driver

Storyline
Eliza Kendall Welch (Uma Thurman), mother of, Clara, and Lucas, lives with her spouse, Avery McKendrik (Anthony Edwards), in an Manhattan apartment. Today is May 25th, Clara's 6th birthday, and she has to make arrangements for a party, as well as attend to day-to-day chores, including Blogging, and entering an online contest 'Motherhood', and looking after her invalid elderly neighbor and a dog. Things will slowly get out of hand after her car gets towed due to a film shooting; the tire on her bike gets punctured; she alienates herself from her friend, Sheila (Minnie Driver); Clara's name is misspelled on the cake; while Avery refuses to answer his cell-phone. After being assisted by a delivery man, Nikesh (Arjun Gupta), who finds her attractive, she concludes she has had enough, and decides not to return home.

Cast:
Uma Thurman - Eliza Welch
Anthony Edwards - Avery McKendrik
David Schallipp - Lucas Welch
Matthew Schallipp - Lucas Welch
Daisy Tahan - Clara Welch
Alice Drummond - Edith
Stephanie Szostak - Sandrine
Celina Vignaud - Isabella, daughter of Sandrine
Minnie Driver - Sheila
Dale Soules - Hester
James Lecesne - Annoyed Man
Marceline Hugot - Curious Tourist
Victor Colicchio - Roofer in Truck
Brian Tarantina - Opera Lover in Car
Kerry Bishé - Good Sharing Mom

Taglines: There are no time-outs in...

Official Website: Official site |

Release Date: 28 August 2009

Filming Locations: New York City, New York, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $50,081 (USA) (25 October 2009) (48 Screens)

Gross: $92,900 (USA) (15 November 2009)

Runtime: 90 min

Trivia:
Grossed $100,000 in the USA in 2009 and, in its UK opening weekend, took a total of £88 - equating to about 11 tickets sold.

Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Eliza refers to Pylon as "The Pylons".

A lot of ado about nothing

Rating: 2/10

It's not terribly hard to sell water to people in the desert. It's also not very hard to make a movie reflecting on hard lives of mothers and gain respect of mother who watch it. The trick is to make such movie and sell it to people who aren't mothers. This movie failed on that line. Failed miserably.

Motherhood is a long (it seems) movie about a mother that has to do it all. She tries to be a great mother, she tries to run errands, she tries to revive a dying career, she tries to take care of her elderly neighbor, and most of all, she tries to find peace of mind and justice in the world seemingly unsuited for mothers like her. If it doesn't sound original to you at this point, it's probably because it's not. And it doesn't get any better.

The problem I personally had with the movie is that I can't seem to categorize it. It's not a comedy, it's not a drama, it's not a love story, and it's definitely not a family movie. The only thing that comes to my mind is that it's perhaps a movie made for mothers who probably won't find to watch it, but if they do, it will make them feel better for a day or two.

As far as the personality goes, there really isn't any. Thurman's acting is surprisingly flat and annoying; she takes on more than she can chew just to bitch about it in her Carrie Bradshaw-like narrative bits she submits on her blog. She constantly asks the world, why can't a mother be still a person, why must she undergo a partial lobotomy and dedicate her entire life to make another happen. Well, I don't know. And if you think you'll watch the movie and find out, don't bother; no question is answered. There is no motto, no meaningful ending other than 'Gee, I really overreacted at that store today. I'm going to get up in the morning and be a better mother to my children'. I believe the answer could be, don't be mad, but...Nobody forced you to have a kid. Or two, for that matter.

Motherhood is extremely disappointing as a movie, especially if you weren't born with an uterus; instead of trying to diminish the fact that some mothers are indeed a little psycho, it creates even a bigger gap between the men and the women, between the fathers and the mothers.

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