The other love that dare not speak its name

The Mother
Anne Reid as the Mother and Daniel Craig
Director: Roger Mitchell (of Notting Hill, yes the man that shot, I am just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her)

Daniel Craig’s character has a line in the movie that goes: ‘We’ll be like that one day, nobody wanting us.’ And this is the point of the whole movie. That Daniel Craig (or our own personal version of him anyway) will want us, even when we are 70 years old and have lost hope of any romance or physical attraction. That a superb specimen that is Daniel Craig could actually want us.

Apparently this was a most controversial story, breaking taboos and all of that. What I kept thinking was, would it be just as taboo if it was the other way around? If some 70 year old man was getting it on with a thirty something year old woman? Would it raise any eyebrows and would it be such a touching story to tell? I think not.

So yes, this is a story about an older woman getting it on with a younger not so savoury man. Okay so there are other issues in play, like the fact that the younger man is the woman’s daughter’s boyfriend who is actually married anyway. Yes there are those factors complicating the story, but a good story it remains.

I know my biggest fear in life is that I am not attractive to anyone in the world. That at 65, that will have been made abundantly true is a very real fear and a depressing one at that. So this movie hit home for me. Mainly in confirming the fact that yes, you will not be attractive to anybody else, if you are; they are after something else other than your aging droopy body.

Others may take away from this movie that your soul and essence remains attractive to other souls and essences no matter what age you are. Nnnnnoooottttttt.

I liked Daniel Craig. I liked him as the South African mercenary in Munich and the tormented husband who fails to be a hero in Enduring love. After this movie, I respect and love him even more. He is not just the new James Bond. He is not all about doing characters that will make him a whole load of cash and it is not about always looking good. He is willing to explore other characters that will expand him and bring him that much closer to understanding the human condition.

Daniel Craig, if you ever are around these parts of the world and are looking a good conversation and whatever else, hey look me up!

The Mother is currently out on DVD if anyone is interested. Whatever Freudian questions come up just ignore and enjoy!

4 spoons!