The Good Mother

This is a super slow burn. I typically like it slow and sexy, but the general writing and obvious lack of real life experiences on the subject matter was obvious. The writing was just not up to the level of the talent.

If the writer(s) don't know the real world of drugs then they should have focused on the other theme of the mother getting back to her life as a writer (I assume they should know a few things about that).

I was initially drawn in with the expectation that it would be about the mother getting her life back. That's not what happened. There was the typical movie plot twist with an ending that left you not knowing the choice made.

No pun intended - I reckon this tries to be a bit more clever than other movies. And maybe it does succeed in a sense ... that will be for you to decide. It does have quite the stellar cast. And I would argue it works in favor of the movie - no matter how convoluted you may think the story(telling) is in the end.

If you have children of your own, you may be able to really get into the feelings of the mother .. understand her more ... even if she may act "irrationally" (I reckon some might call it that). But what shouldn't she do to find out the truth? Exactly ... will it be enough in the end? I would say there are a few twists I was not expecting so there is that ... for better or worse.

Terrible plot, unrealistic behaviors from anyone with a "functioning" brain. Where's the "ending" to this ridiculous movie? Hilary Swank seems to be signing on for "anything" these days.

Every movie should have a beginning, a middle or the "meat" of the story. Then of course, an ending SURE would be nice as well so it can make some kind of sense and have closure. This movie is lacking in so many areas. It doesn't seem finished and as far as I know, there's no PART 2. The title should be "The drunken, terrible Mother". There was nothing GOOD about "Marissa".

Please, do yourself a favor & don't waste your valuable time.

6 years in the making? Felt like it was written and rushed through direction over the course of 2 weeks, along with the title. We just don't have enough "The good this, and The Good that" out there, so why not another one. Some parts of this were truly impactful and helped to establish relatable characters and situations. Unfortunately, quite a few head-scratcher moments where clumsy writing would expel me right out from that plausible experience and cause an eyeroll or headshake- including the totally obvious and done a million times over twist play. Some of the more frustrating and pedestrian issues I can't reveal without spoilers. There is no question that Hillary Swank and Olivia Cooke have the talent, but I felt the overall story plot devices were shallow, and it prevented this from being satisfying. I won't remember this in the sea of The Good Whatevers after tomorrow.

Director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte's decent little crime drama "The Good Mother" is spoiled by the screenplay he co-wrote with Madison Harrison (their second such collaboration) having too obvious a 'twist' and too ambiguous an ending. In 2016 Albany, hard drinking journalist Hilary Swank loses her youngest son (an addict) to an apparently drug-related drive-by shooting - which she gets drawn into investigating with his pregnant girlfriend Olivia Cooke (good) and her other son Jack Reynor (always good) who's a cop (married to Dilone). Facts & loyalties fudge as the simple tale winds to its conclusion, which is ultimately, as said... too ambiguous.