"Eine gute Mutter" is well made and well acted, but it suffers from the script's utter implausibility. Why, to begin with, would someone as apparently wealthy and seclusive as Gesine (Barbara Auer) ride on the bus or the subway? And why would it take Kathrin (Jördis Triebel) take seven years to smell the rat? It's still fun to watch some of Germany's finest performers in action, but their efforts seem wasted on a flawed story. The best thing about "Eine gute Mutter" is Jannis Michel's off-screen reading, from the Book of Kings, of the story of Solomon's judgment, its mighty words replaying the on-screen action and dwarfing the silly screenplay at the same time.
