Ewan McGregor's mother Ellen Burstyn visits a furniture store and doesn't want to leave. Ever.
That's the basic plot of "Mother, Couch", a small and very odd film with an all-star cast.
Is the film supposed to be taken at face value or is it an allegory? Is Ellen Burstyn's titular mother in God's Waiting Room, or simply a lady who doesn't want to get off the couch?
I will say that the film sits a little better now having slept on it than it did when I was actually watching it. It clocked in at only 1hr 36 min but felt way longer. There are no big moments or cinematic fireworks but rather a sober and somewhat off-beat exploration of the human condition.
McGregor plays David, a harried and anxiety-prone family man whose unhappy life gets weirder when his elderly mother sits down on a couch at Oakbeds Furniture store and decides that she's not going anywhere, come hell or high water. (We get a little bit of both).
David's two adult siblings are of little use during this family crisis. There's the forgetful slacker Gruffeld (Rhys Ifans) and the bitter and put-upon Linda (Lara Flynn Boyle). The film exposes their toxic relationship as they try to bring their mother home. Or as Linda suggests, should they just leave her there?
The store is about to close, but an employee has at least a temporary solution: there's a bed near the couch and David can stay the night. Taylor Russell plays the pretty employee Bella and is a ray of sunshine in this dark film. There's a hint that there might be a sexual spark between she and David, but he should be so lucky.
Burstyn at 91 is one tough-as-nails broad in the central role playing a less less than sympathetic character. She's a mean mother but we can see where she's coming from.
The film was inspired, at least in part, by a Swedish novel called 'Mamma i soffa'. The film's writer and director Niclas Larsson making his first full-length feature said at a screening I attended that he read the first 10 pages of the book when he paused and wrote his own script. It's allowed, he said, as this is art. True; just don't look for an accurate page-to-screen adaptation.
Larsson did assemble an absolutely stellar cast with F. Murray Abraham and Lake Bell in supporting roles.
