The most frustrating thing about "I Am Mother" is the way it favors the unveiling of plot twists over nearly everything else, including characterization, theme, and the related pleasures of world-building.
In retrospect, the entire production feels misshapen. It spends more time assuring us of the benevolent relationship between Mother and Daughter than the movie needed, considering that no robot with the body of a combat droid, the voice of Nurse Ratched from " One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ," and a single, unblinking, HALstyle eye is going to turn out to be entirely loving and harmless.
The movie also needlessly delays the arrival of the movie's second, rival "mother" figure Hilary Swank's character , mostly fails to develop the idea of her as a plausible rival for the daughter's affections, then effectively waves away what little we were given by implying that she was an early version of Daughter and part of some kind of sinister grand plan. No sooner are we out of the shelter than Daughter goes back home for some good old-fashioned matricide, and throughout the film's second half, you sometimes get the feeling that the moviemakers are using intimate, intense scenes of suspense and violence to run out the clock and make a movie that's built around just three characters feel "bigger" and more "cinematic.
Pixar fans will raise an appreciative eyebrow at the compressed opening montage, prankishly scored to a cover of "Baby Mine" from " Dumbo " and nodding to both the tearjerking opening montage of " Up " and the wordless first act of " Wall-E " a harmonic convergence of Disney references. The latter is also set some time after an ecological catastrophe that wiped out humankind, although we get incomplete information here as to whether robots actively caused the death of civilization or just ran rampant in the aftermath.
The Swank character's account of robots torturing babies is more disturbing than many sequences where violence is actually shown, and it prepares us for the moment when Mother backs her against a wall and sticks a metal finger in her wound.
That being said, the latter is one of many moments that don't make a lot of sense once you get to the film's powerful and cryptic ending. If Swank's visitor was being permitted to live the whole time because she's part of a larger cycle or plan involving the extinction and repopulation of the planet—and in fact has been left alone all these years for precisely that reason—then why was it necessary to torture her in order to learn the whereabouts of the other humans she mentioned to Daughter?
These and other questions might not loom so large in the viewer's mind if "I Am Mother" had fully delivered on the promise of its setup. If it weren't so concerned with flipping the plot upside-down every 15 minutes in the manner of a Netflix series, hmmm the movie might've evolved into an unsettling meditation on artificial intelligence, and the legitimacy of simulated or manufactured feelings.
It asks questions that science fiction has been posing for generations now, and that are regularly in the news in this era of increasingly sophisticated AI. At this point, Mother could easily remain in control of the bunker thanks to her superior strength and vast army, but instead she concedes control to Daughter, convinced that the embryos are now in safe hands. The robot declares, "I was raised to value human life above all else," and now that Daughter has proven herself to be a worthy guardian to humanity, Mother is no longer needed either.
That doesn't stop the murderous mecha from offering her help — "If you ever need to find me More a symbolic act of defiance than a legitimate attempt to 'defeat' Mother once and for all, this marks the end of the experiment. Mother's consciousness still exists in the other droids outside, but she's now giving Daughter the freedom to raise the embryos how she sees fit, without any further guidance. The very last scene echoes the beginning of the movie, but this time round, it's Daughter who sings the song 'Baby of Mine' to her new charge, just like Mother once sang to her as a child.
Whether you predicted things would turn out this way or not, I Am Mother is still a worthy addition to Netflix's growing library of genre offerings. I Am Mother is now available to watch on Netflix. Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features?
Type keyword s to search. Note: Contains spoilers for I Am Mother. This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Related Story. Storyline Edit. She'll keep you safe. Drama Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller. Did you know Edit.
Trivia This screenplay by Michael Lloyd Green featured on the Black List, which is an annual listing of film industry-valued unproduced movie scripts. Goofs Woman didn't want general anaesthesia for the removal of the bullet from her wound, but she wasn't even given a local anaesthetic. Without at least a local anaesthetic, involuntary squirming in reaction to the pain would have made such a precision operation as drilling into the bullet impossible.
Quotes Mother : Contrary to your understandable assumptions, my primary directive is to care for humanity. User reviews Review. Top review. Keeps you guessing. While they didn't every question, the ending left me satisfied enough to warranty a recommendation for this film. Great to see a good sci-fi made here in Australia. Most Australian films I find dull and artsy. This was not. The robot looks amazing and the story moves along at a decent speed, enough to keep you interested anyway.
Details Edit. I will tell you this story does prove how far a mother will go for her child! The first half of this story is slow, and although I understand it is for backstories and character development the author simply takes too long! The heart of the story is great but once that is over it could have ended.
I've been told the audiobook narrated by the author is a wonderful experience! I don't doubt this as Joshilyn Jackson is a former actor and award winning audiobook narrator. I would definitely recommend listening to the audiobook rather than reading the print book for a better experience! It has been my pleasure to give my honest and voluntary review.
View all 66 comments. Apr 15, Will Byrnes rated it it was amazing Shelves: fiction , suspense , mystery , thriller. I woke up to see a witch peering in my bedroom window. Sunrise lit up the thin, silvery hair that straggled out from under her hat. I should have leaped up screaming. I should have run at her with any weapon I could find.
Even half asleep, I knew that there was I woke up to see a witch peering in my bedroom window. Even half asleep, I knew that there was no such thing as witches. And I was looking at one.
Once upon a time is a familiar beginning. The Brothers Grimm Jake and Willy collected a trove of European folklore notable for, among other things, its dark content. Jackson was raised with those stories, I always reference fairy tales in my books.
Ever since I was a young child, I have been an avid reader. I like fairy tales, so I just put them in the stories. She lends this part of herself to her desperate lead, with some added brio. Her world was full of witches. And sometimes the darkness of life matches the depths of grim imagination. And all it takes is a momentary lapse of attention and her infant son, Robert, is snatched away.
No changeling is left in his place, but there is a message. Follow my instructions to the letter, or else. All my books, in some way or another, look with varying degrees of hope and cynicism at how far we can walk into the black and still be saved.
What are the tiny lights that turn us and call us home, and why do some people see those faint, glowing calls, while others walk straight off the edge of the world and are lost? Many of my dearest people from my lost years are dead, or went into the prison system or disappeared. And me? She had been born poor, but got a scholarship to college and then married well, securing an upper-middle-class utopia with a successful studly lawyer husband, three beautiful kids well, for now anyway a lovely home in a well-to-do neighborhood, and a satisfying community life.
But, one wrong move and it could all vanish. How fragile life can be, no? But her comfortable life is threatened by a blackmailer who knows her big secret. In this one, Bree is stuck having to deal without even knowing what her nemesis is tormenting her about.
Jax makes the point that for those with money or damn good luck it is possible to screw up and get a second chance, or a third, fourth and so on, while for those on the lower economic fringe, one mistake and your future becomes a hopeless, eternal present. I serve on the board of a small non-profit, Reforming Arts reformingarts.
I try to teach one semester a year, and so far, all my classes have been in the maximum security facility. Our students are diverse in terms of age and race and orientation. The one thing they almost universally have in common is that they were raised in grinding poverty, often by disordered or abusive families.
We punish the poor more quickly and more severely; sometimes it feels as if being poor is itself a crime. One is seeking revenge for a long-ago wrong. Bree is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her baby. Both are in full-on Mama Grizzly mode, and find a sort-of empathy with each other, despite the ongoing horror.
Their links are not just through their common concern as mothers, but in their common class background. This bond between enemies is a technique Jackson carries over from her prior novel, Never Have I Ever , in which Amy Whey and her blackmailer, Roux, find themselves to be strangely sympatico, well able to understand each other, while those around them seem unable to.
Never… represented a redirection of sorts for Jackson, away from romantic comedy-drama. But even in the books she wrote prior to that there were often underlying crimes that drove the action. So the shift to writing thrillers was not really all that big a change. It has been, however, a very effective one. Every time you think you can see the road ahead, there is the squealing of brakes hitting a hairpin curve too fast, and, with a sudden acceleration, you are speeding off in another direction.
She was a theater major in college, has done some acting and even reads audio books professionally, not just her own. She gives Bree her theater training, the better to allow her to lie in public, with her words and her body. It helps Bree in dire circumstances, but also in lesser ones. Deep secrets figure large, whether our lead is looking to penetrate one or defend against one of theirs being exposed.
Class and family resources, or lack of same, are frequently core elements. That is very much the case here. There is a duel between antagonists. Redemption turns up a lot. That is less the case for Bree in this book, per se, but the need for redemption is still a strong element. There are usually adolescents involved, although in this novel, they play a secondary role.
Jackson is also fond of portraying constructed families. As with the teens, that is here, but in a very small way. She also includes fairy tale elements check and says that there is a Stephen King reference in all her books not telling.
Readers familiar with her work will be more than satisfied with Mother May I , holding to the familiar themes and story elements while adding some newer, harder-edged moving parts.
Readers new to her work are in for a great treat. This is a book about class…how class plays into what justice looks like. Some witches are real; the past never forgets and needs only a little prompting to come after you, teeth-bared; happily ever after is for fairy tales, and sometimes not even there.
The baby is not swiped until chapter 2 in the final version. View all 11 comments. This was my second read by this author and once again I felt it just missed the mark for me. It only takes a moment. Your focus is elsewhere. When you turn back…your child is gone. This is what happened to Bree when her young son strapped in his car seat vanishes when her attention turns to her other children.
When Bree is contacted by the kidnappers she is told she only needs to perform one small act and her son will be returned to her unharmed. Easy peasy! Well not so fast…. But this one really asked a bit too much from me. The author narrated her own book and I thought she did a fabulous job bringing the characters to life.
View all 51 comments. A gripping and thought provoking domestic suspense about motherhood, family, privilege and revenge! Imagine you wake up and see a witch looking in your bedroom window, it was just your imagination right?!
A bad dream?! What if you saw her again, and then your baby went missing This is what happened to Bree Cabbat! Who is the woman? And what will Bree do to get him back? This was my second book by Joshilyn Jackson , and I enjoyed them both! Mother May I did start out a bit slow A gripping and thought provoking domestic suspense about motherhood, family, privilege and revenge! Mother May I did start out a bit slow, and like a fairy-tale, but I stuck with it and quickly became hooked!
It wasn't a fast paced thriller, but it was dark, nail-biting and shocking in places. It definitely held my attention, with it's menacing feeling as I discovered that bad decisions in your past can sometimes deservedly come back to haunt you. Bree, the narrator was likeable, and the more I got to know her, the more depth she had to her character. It was stressful reading about her baby being kidnapped, and the writing made me feel both terrified and emotional because I could feel her terror!
I just wanted Bree to find her baby alive, and for everything to be ok. I really couldn't say what I would do in her position, but I suspect I, like Bree, would also do what I could to get my baby back!
As well as keeping me entertained, Mother May I made me think about how well we know the people in our lives? It made me think about trust, loyalty and honesty. But it especially made me angry that certain people can get away with things they did when they were younger, and others can not.
How one event can be shrugged off by one party, but ruin the other person's life. We see it in real life, how the rich and the privileged do sometimes coast through life with little repercussions, and it's wrong. As much as I enjoyed the building suspense, I couldn't give this book five stars because I wasn't keen on the ending.
Nevertheless, this was a suspenseful read, with a gorgeous cover! I've also heard that the audio, narrated by the author is pretty good! View all 59 comments. Very old. So old it was sweating, and the papery layers had begun peeling away. It must be as unstable as all hell, and there was a lot of it, stacked in a horseshoe around the baby.
The second book by this author that I have just hoovered up, reading it in less than twenty-four hours. The second book that has made me breathless, excited, and very vocal as I read. The second book that I am going to go out and buy a physical copy of to put on my shelves.
I loved Bree. She is a strong character, wanting all the available information before she judges or makes decisions. Not an easy task in some of the situations she finds herself.
Bree is family oriented. She will do anything to protect her family, and when you know about her past, how she was raised, you can understand why.
I loved the taut plotting in Mother May I. There is something about Jackson's writing that sucks me in at the beginning and spits me out at the end. There are no confusing multiple points of view, or multiple timelines; just a tense, nailbiting, gripping and thrilling story that will keep you wondering just what is going to happen next. I can't wait to read whatever Joshilyn Jackson produces next. A former actor, she also reads the audio version of her novels. She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her family.
All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads. View all 30 comments. Joshilyn Jackson is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I love to listen to her books. She narrators her books herself and who knows their character's better than the author. I listened and read part of the book but enjoyed listening to it more.
If you enjoy listening to audiobooks, this is one not to be missed. Well, I think reading or listening to all Joshilyn Jackson books are not to be missed.
Mother May I explores what a mother will do for their child. After a mysterious woman kidnaps Joshilyn Jackson is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I love to listen to her books. After a mysterious woman kidnaps Bree's infant son, she puts Bree to that test.
Bree knows little why she took her son but learns she is a mother too, and she is willing to do the unthinkable for her daughter. Now Bree must do what she says without knowing why. The story starts off slow while we get to know the characters, and as Joshilyn Jackson skillfully builds that tension to the story, she is known for.
Then it turns into a dark, suspenseful, edge of your seat gripping, twisty one, as we see Bree become trapped in a dangerous web of revenge and secrets while racing against time to save her son. The story is full of twists, turns and dark discoveries that did rattle me a bit. I seem to be a bit more sensitive to stories involving children lately, and this one is unsettling with a mother willing to harm an infant if she doesn't get what she wants. The big reveal is a good one and I liked how it was handled, but the story takes a few more turns after that felt a bit much and overwhelms the story.
I did enjoy how it all wrapped up in the end. The audiobook is easy to listen to and, at times, a bit repetitive, so if your mind does wander a bit while listening, it's easy to get back on track with the story. View all 49 comments. Later that day at her daughters show rehearsal whilst her back is briefly turned, her life becomes a living nightmare. The story is told by Bree and Marshall an ex-cop, whom she has known for many years.
However, parts 2 and 3 are not in the same league as the first having an inconsistent pace. With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bloomsbury Publishing, Raven Books for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review. View all 40 comments. Apr 12, Nilufer Ozmekik rated it really liked it.
Did you get excited about the premise? Bree Cabbat in her late thirties, finally has it all: wealthy, charming lawyer husband, two teenager girls and a lovely newborn boy lately joined to her happy family. But Bree is always great actress, knowing how to pretend everything is fine. She stayed connected with Betsy and her boyfriend Marshall. Both of friends married at the same time, gave birth to their kids but as Bree chose to have a luxurious life as a devoted wife, Betsy and Marshall chose to be police officers, raising their girl, enjoying their middle class statues till Betsy died because of occupational hazard and left her husband behind.
If she obeys the rules, she may get her baby back as soon as possible. Too many deadly secrets about the dark past start to reveal at the same time. Even though Bree saves her baby, her old life has already gone.
How could she pick up the pieces of herself when everything is crumbled into million pieces. I finished this book at one sit. The ending made sense for me. It was the best satisfactory wrapping up for characters. Marshall was also thoughtful, caring, trustworthy, rational character I honestly liked.
I also enjoyed the previous book of the author. View all 5 comments. May 21, Jen rated it really liked it. Mother may I Or will you do it for me? An eye for an eye. Jackson unleashes her talent in her latest story of revenge. The lengths mothers will go to protect their children. The sacrifices they will make.
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