Do You Kiss Your Mother With That Script?
Question: What is the name of Toni Collette's character in Little Miss Sunshine?*
I saw it three hours ago, and I couldn't tell you.
Moms are getting the indie film shaft these days. Noticed it with Laura Linney in Squid and the Whale, too.
Little Miss Sunshine is a sweet, funny movie, that's generally working on the side of good. The movie sets up detailed, credible back stories for most of the characters, including Greg Kinnear's "9 Steps to Success" hoped-for book deal, Steve Carrell's failures in romance and Proust scholarship, and teenager Paul Dano's vow of silence on the road to becoming a test pilot. The more detailed the back story and desire line, the more satisfying it is when these characters are shaken up, and must become someone new.
And what's going on with Mom? Well, Mom's nice. And sensible, and rational. She's trying to keep the family together, but not obsessively so. She gets pissed, but it takes a lot, and it passes. She's... well, she's the mom.
If asked to describe this woman, what would you say? This character so lacks details in terms of back story, a desire line, or flaws, that you can't even properly call her a loser. And isn't this supposed to be a movie about losers?
I hate to be a girl, here, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. It’s painfully obvious this movie was written by a man. Because the mom character here is a black hole filled only by the powerful presence of Toni Collette.
But fear not, men. I don't deny you've got mad skills. Most of these great mom characters were also written by the likes of you: Annette Bening in American Beauty; Frances McDormand in Almost Famous; Maria Bello in A History of Violence; Holly Hunter in The Incredibles… or Thirteen; Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich; Shohreh Aghdashloo in House of Sand and Fog; Samantha Morton in In America; Mary McDonnell in Donnie Darko; Joan Allen in Pleasantville... or Joan and Sigourney Weaver in The Ice Storm. Just to name a few.
And what do these memorable moms have in common?
*Answer: Sheryl.
I saw it three hours ago, and I couldn't tell you.
Moms are getting the indie film shaft these days. Noticed it with Laura Linney in Squid and the Whale, too.
Little Miss Sunshine is a sweet, funny movie, that's generally working on the side of good. The movie sets up detailed, credible back stories for most of the characters, including Greg Kinnear's "9 Steps to Success" hoped-for book deal, Steve Carrell's failures in romance and Proust scholarship, and teenager Paul Dano's vow of silence on the road to becoming a test pilot. The more detailed the back story and desire line, the more satisfying it is when these characters are shaken up, and must become someone new.
And what's going on with Mom? Well, Mom's nice. And sensible, and rational. She's trying to keep the family together, but not obsessively so. She gets pissed, but it takes a lot, and it passes. She's... well, she's the mom.
If asked to describe this woman, what would you say? This character so lacks details in terms of back story, a desire line, or flaws, that you can't even properly call her a loser. And isn't this supposed to be a movie about losers?
I hate to be a girl, here, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. It’s painfully obvious this movie was written by a man. Because the mom character here is a black hole filled only by the powerful presence of Toni Collette.
But fear not, men. I don't deny you've got mad skills. Most of these great mom characters were also written by the likes of you: Annette Bening in American Beauty; Frances McDormand in Almost Famous; Maria Bello in A History of Violence; Holly Hunter in The Incredibles… or Thirteen; Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich; Shohreh Aghdashloo in House of Sand and Fog; Samantha Morton in In America; Mary McDonnell in Donnie Darko; Joan Allen in Pleasantville... or Joan and Sigourney Weaver in The Ice Storm. Just to name a few.
And what do these memorable moms have in common?
- They are neither good nor bad.
- They have conflicting internal desires that render their characters complex.
- They do not exist only for the rest of the family (or if they do, that gets challenged).
- They are grounded by the particulars of their situation and family.
- They play more than one note: joy, grief, rage, despair. Whatever the cocktail may be.
- They have moments of both weakness and strength. They can be selfish; they can be wrong!
*Answer: Sheryl.
posted by Jennica at 3:56 p.m.
9 Comments:
this is a nice rant about the lack of structure within film to depict mothers or more importantly families as disfunctional units. relationships arent perfect, especially in families. nice work.
I'm on a Howard Hawks marathon right now, and it's interesting that there are very few, if any, mothers in any of his movies. Few children or married couples either, for that matter. Hawks apparently liked the tension of a man and woman meeting each other for the first time, and I can see when trying to write a mother, it's a challenge to make her exciting.
Your entry brought up some excellent strategms to solve that problem, Jennica. When I become a successful screenwriter, can I sponsor you so you can blog every day?
Hey, Thirteen and Erin Brokovich were written by women. Give them props :-)
That's why I said "most"! Many props to Mizzes Hardwicke, Reed, and Grant and their moms.
Welcome, Scott... and thanks for bringing friends. :)
Welcome to you too, Crazyfool, you crazy fool you.
Joe, good point about the built-in tension of a man and woman meeting for the first time. In real life, this is 'the honeymoon phase'-- guess stories are just like life. The longer you've known someone, or the more familiar they are, the less inherent tension there is with them. Hmmm.
Hmmm.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
You're right - we were on the same wavelength. When I wrote my little blurb about the mother and daughter, I knew the daughter was "Olive" but had to go to IMDb and look up the film to find the mother's name, "Sheryl." And I've seen the movie twice!
A few more movies that don't use the black-hole mom: You Can Count On Me, the Upside of Anger and Pieces of April. All strong on mother character development. But in general, I agree mothers don't get as much juice. Especially in Little Miss Sunshine.
[I found a glaring misspelling and had to remove my first attempt to post.]
To jump to LMS's defence, I couldn't remember any of the character's names except Olive once the movie was over. And isn't the Mom here the anchor in a movie of Radios?
But yes, it would have been nice for her to have had more complexity. We know she has a job, why couldn't we know what it is? I don't know why there would be more of a challenge writing a mother exciting than anyone else who was 'normal'.
I still love the movie, though.
Oh, Shecanfilmit... I can't believe I forgot to include You Can Count On Me. It's easily one of my favourites.
And speaking of Patricia Clarkson: another one people might be interested in is The Safety of Objects, which has *several* flawed but interesting moms in it.
M, all your pros and cons are points well taken. Really, the job thing was just glaring. You'd think her job might come up when she's mad because her income's been paying for everything... what is it Sheryl's been slaving away at, to support this entire family? Etc.
I was just thinking about how hard it must be as an actress to find a good role in Hollywood (prompted by my FINALLY watching Syriana with a whole 2 female roles). This must be on a lot of people's minds because lo and behold How to Write Screenplays. Badly. has a blog entry about it. Caustic and funny and insightful in a way. http://jerslater.blogspot.com/
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