Mia Madre – Film Review by Cormac Fitzgerald

Directed by: Nanni Moretti

Written by: Nanni Moretti, Valia Santella

Starring: Margherita Buy; Giulia Lazzarini; John Turturro

Mia Madre (My Mother) is a touching story that focuses on coming to terms with the terminal sickness of an elderly parent amidst the chaos and turmoil of everyday life.

Margherita (Margherita Buy) is directing a difficult movie about factory workers rights. While she wrestles with Barry Huggins (John Turturro), an eccentric Hollywood star who can’t speak Italian, her mother, Ada (Giulia Lazzarini), is dying in the hospital. Margherita struggles between caring for her mother and coming to terms with her sickness while dealing with the pressures of bringing her movie to the screen. She also must deal with a daughter coming into adolescence who’s not doing well in school and a recent break-up with her boyfriend.

Director Nanni Moretti seems to be telling a personal story here, as his mother died while he was filming a previous film, Habemus Papam. Margherita finds the pressures of her life leading her to a nervous breakdown while she is unable to come to terms with the sickness of her mother. Moretti also appears in the film as Margherita’s Brother, Giovanni, who quits his job to care for Ada in her last days and seems to handle the situation better.

There is nothing particularly tragic in the death of an elderly parent, but it is a sad event for all families and Moretti handles it well: giving a touching poignancy and vulnerability to the characters but not making things overly-sentimental.

The real conflict is about Margherita and her rapidly disintegrating world. Disturbing dream scenes that merge into real life are beautifully executed in revealing to us her fragile state of mind, while memories woven into the fabric of the story reveal to the audience more of her character. Buy plays the role very well, jumping between extreme exhaustion and frustration in every scene, while still maintaining Margherita’s likeability as a character and a strong lead.

Turturro, meanwhile, is fantastic as the obnoxious but insecure American actor Barry Huggins. His scenes regularly verge on the absurd as he grapples with Italian and acts poorly in multiple scenes as the new factory boss. His character seems at odds with the family drama of the rest of the movie, however he brings much needed comedy to counter-balance the sadness of the hospital scenes and his character compliments Buy’s well, with their scenes together very well executed.

Moretti himself is reserved in his role, seeming like a rock compared with the antics of his two lead actors. The ailing mother, Ada, is well played by Giulia Lazzarini, who captures the sense of frailty evident in the old and sick. Beatrice Mancini is sweet and likeable as the teenage daughter Livia, who dotes over her grandmother.

The movie, however, seems to be mostly about Margherita, and what she learns about her own character and personality in times of sadness and stress. In that way, Mia Madre could be about director Nanni Moretti, and a meditation for him in coming to terms with his own loss and career.