There’s a war going on in Mother of George, not just among family obligations and societal pressures, but against the very film itself. On the one hand this is movie that tells an engaging story of a couple facing struggles when they can’t conceive a baby. Yet, on the other hand, this is a film so concerned with its visuals and being stylistic that it often gets in its own way. So then how does Mother of George fare in this war? Not well, I’m afraid. Though I want to recommend and champion this movie, the film left me so frustrated and robbed of a good experience that even on the nicest of days it’d be tough for me to give it my blessing.
Danai Gurira and Isaach De Bankolé play Adenike and Ayodele Balogun, a young Nigerian couple that lives in Brooklyn that are trying to make their way in life, but struggling to conceive a child. Ma Ayo, Ayodele’s mother, leads the charge that the couple needs to conceive and the pressure begins to mount, straining the couple’s relationship and forcing Adenike to make a decision that could destroy her family or bring them together.
The script for Mother of George, while easy to write a synopsis for, is actually quite complex and written with such an eye for moral ambiguity. The film never once judges any of the characters, even as they may be making poor decisions and allows you to really dig into the psyches of the characters. I especially enjoyed how the narrative approached the culture of these people and let the audience understand just what it would mean to be a part of the family. Even as the matriarch of the family is suggesting that Ayodele sleep with another woman to follow the child, you don’t think it’s out-of-place.
This kind of writing is the breeding ground of good performances and the actors don’t disappoint. Gurira is fantastic as Adenike, a woman pulled in many directions and driven to the brink. It was wonderful watching her play with the character’s shifting moral center and heartbreaking to watch once she makes the decision she does. She’s matched beat for beat by Isaach De Bankolé, who plays as stalwart a man as you will find. I loved how he played Ayodele as this mixture of a man trying his best to make a way out of this situation. True goodness is tough to pull off but he manages to show that even in a world of people who make bad decisions, goodness can triumph. Speaking of people who may not be “good”, I don’t think there’s been one on-screen that was as cold a cold piece as Ma Ayo Balogun. Played with calculating precision and not a single ounce of remorse, Bukky Ajayi dominates the film despite her limited screen time. We feel her presence and meddlesome nature even when she’s not there, as much a testament to her effectiveness while on-screen as it is the screenplay. Yaya Alafia and Anthony Okungbowa also turn in some sterling supporting work as the family friend and brother of the couple whose secret relationship gets tangled.
But while I can praise the story and the performances, I cannot give this film any higher than two stars because of the execution. There is such a thing as a film being stylistic, but to call this film stylistic is an insult to the word. This movie, in the hands director Andrew Dosunmu and cinematographer Bradford Young, is rendered almost unwatchable by virtue of the way it’s shot. In my estimation, at least 2/3 of this movie is shot out of focus and there are far to many closeups of body parts. Now these choices in and of themselves wouldn’t be bad, except for Mother of George gives no narrative reasoning as to why they should happen. Which is depressing because Young is a gifted DP and you see his brilliance in two shots, one an argument filmed in a mirror’s reflection and the other a person fading into darkness. But I can’t even rave properly about those shots because they are immediately obfuscated in the next shot and for the majority of the film.
Film is a visual medium and unfortunately, Mother of George is just not great to watch. It’s one thing to be stylistic and adventurous but once that style overwhelms the narrative, you have failed the audience as a filmmaker, no matter how good the story is.
Grade: ** (D+)