Fascinating and erotic -- if also difficult and disturbing -- Christophe Honoré's ambitious adaptation of Georges Bataille's novel prevails because of the frank treatment of its serious subject matter.

| May 16, 2022

The cast deliver brave, accomplished performances, with Huppert's Héléne a compelling mixture of menace and fragility.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 24, 2019

Eurotrash at its trashiest worst.

| Original Score: C- | May 11, 2008

Most of the screenplay consists of meandering and inebriated characters talking just as high-falutin'.

| Feb 26, 2007

| Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 21, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

A self-satisfied, utterly hollow Bacchanal.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 18, 2005

This sexually messy, religiously infused film is a perfect example of the dregs of European cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 11, 2005

Glazed-over looks, naked flesh, inane philosophizing, and sand dunes announce that we're in Antonioni-land, circa Zabriskie Point.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 31, 2005

110 minutes of Euro silliness mitigated only by the presence of Huppert and the striking ability of the actors to keep a straight face throughout this mess.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 29, 2005

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 27, 2005

Ma mre could easily be mistaken for the latest anhedonic embarrassment out of Canada

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 15, 2005

Probably isn't for anyone not interested in the darkest corners of the human psyche, where sexual annihilation is the only response to a fallen world, where all moral bets are off, and where a boy's worst friend is his mother.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 8, 2005

[The climax] involves such a disturbing blend of unhealthy mother-son affection and physical pain that it gives new meaning to the term child -- not to mention audience -- abuse.

| Jul 7, 2005

Ma Mere will have limited appeal, but I suspect it is a fair visual representation of Bataille's libertine philosophical notions.

| Jul 5, 2005

A little perversity never hurt anyone. But the French film Ma Mere has a lot of perversity and it hurts everyone -- including the people in the audience who don't get up and walk out.

| Original Score: 0/5 | Jul 1, 2005

It could stand as Exhibit A for why French auteurs are a tough sell to the average seeker of entertainment.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 1, 2005

The translation from the highly literary to the literalness of film isn't easy and too often, Ma Mre feels like a parody.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 1, 2005

The drab bondage buffs in Ma Mere are so sick of life and sick of each other that we get sick of them way before the mother makes good on her threats and turns her son into her Oedi-pal.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 16, 2005

It wallows in repellant imagery rather than enlightening us intellectually in any serious way, and it offers no real psychological insight into the characters.

| Original Score: C- | Jun 11, 2005