Review of Mama (2013) by Amheretojudge — 12 Sep 2019

Chastain has an electrifying guitar in her hand, too bad she never plugs it in.

Mama Muschetti walks over that beautiful thin line between art and commercial cinema. Now, serving and satisfying everyone's appetite with "something forChastain has an electrifying guitar in her hand, too bad she never plugs it in.

Mama.

Muschetti walks over that beautiful thin line between art and commercial cinema. Now, serving and satisfying everyone's appetite with "something for everyone" attitude, the co-writer and director Andy Muschetti has managed to please a larger chunk of audience with his method. Personally, I never fall for his tricks or treats. Primarily, because in order to please everyone he isn't fully accepting any aspect of his fate, his world to be precise. It is a standard issue. His characters are always respected. Ergo, his actors gets a good amount of screentime that might as well be sent out straight to the Academy for their consideration.

And is also probably why it speaks to the audience the most. If there is a battle between the richness of the world and the complexity of the character, usually the characters that we see ourselves in, wins over by a larger margin. Only few iconic films like Blade Runner has managed to cut right across that theory arrogantly. And the result is evidently bombastic. But we are going off track.

Mama is the kind of a debut project coming from a filmmaker that puts all his ingredients in one pot. And I found the practical dilemmas, the court case, the family drama and the sincerity of the seriousness through which it shifts the responsibility of a sensitive element much more convincing. The first act is spent upon just introducing the characters and choreographing the subplots into a bigger picture. And that realization of "oh, this is that kind of a film" has its own joy in this horror. And if it nails the dysfunctional family- if we can still call it that- it completely takes the fifth amendment right on justifying the fantasy it is blended with. To add more troubles, it is not scary, the visual effects takes away the heat.