Hilary Swank, a multiple Oscar winner, shouldn’t have to endure a middlin’ thriller like The Good Mother as one of the titular characters, nor should she be a producer. She mopes around the story as a mother, Marissa, who lost a son to addiction and now investigates the suppliers of the fentanyl. As a newspaper reporter, she is equipped to snoop.
It is a dull, formulaic crime movie lacking suspense that only hints at the possibilities for depicting the agony a mother who has lost her estranged son must face. The Good Mother devolves into second-rate detective story. Otherwise, drugs, murder, and deception are the main characters, and not interesting at that. We have heard it before.
Swank takes up with her late son’s pregnant girlfriend, Paige (Olivia Cooke), as they seek answers to what went wrong. Not to fear, for Swank’s trusty cop son, Toby (Jack Reynor in the most complicated role of the film), will help them get to the bad boys behind son’s murder. It is all fashioned as a shabby noir, where the perp you suspected is the bad egg and the police and Swan’s editor (she is an ace writer now on leave) are barely aware of the turmoil Marissa lives in now. Good enough, for then our star reporter can ferret out the criminals.
Swank, of course, could act her way through a weak melodrama even with an underwritten and cliched script. It is just that as a professional filmgoer, I saw the twist coming too soon while I was enjoying the ease with which Swank can inhabit even the poorest-written script. Nevertheless, this pedestrian script leaves her with little acting range, only moping.
Perhaps losing as a producer in this loser film will persuade her to choose her legacy more carefully. After all, two Oscars promise much more than they offer in The Good Mother. Then again, as an antidote to dangerous drug doings, it is a valid cautionary tale.
The Good Mother
Director: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (Gaslight)
Screenplay: Joris-Peyrafitte, Madison Harrison
Cast: Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby), Olivia Coke (Ready Player One)
Run Time: 1h 29m
Rating: R
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
