5/10
The ups and downs of mother/daughter relationships
11 August 2016
Two directors – Paul Duddrudge who is responsible for the concept of the film (written for the screen by Paige Cameron) and Nigel Levy – are part of the problem of this slight film: if two men are directing a story about several dysfunctional mother/daughter relationships they could easily be the reason the film is so confusingly disjointed.

To write a review about the stories in this film would inevitably result in spoilers, if enough facts were strung together to make sense of this mélange. About all that is safe to state is that 'the story is focused on a rock photographer Rigby Gray (Selma Blair) who is riding a career high when an unlikely and unexpected pregnancy forces her to turn her lens inward and see her relationship with her estranged mother with fresh eyes. Through a series of photographs documenting motherhood in all its varieties, she considers what it means to be maternal.

Sounds interesting but what gets in the way is the lack of connection between the girls and their mothers – most were either abandoned at birth (or threatening to repeat that gesture with a D&C) or were lied to by their mother about their birth mother, or they're searching for a face to face with a child they haven't seen for years. And to say more would ruin what little suspense there is in what is termed a comedy (!).

At times frustrating, at times touching, the actors include (no spoilers here) Selma Blair, Susan Sarandon, Eva Amurri Martino, Christina Ricci, Sharon Stone, Courteney Cox, Mira Sorvino, Paul Wesley, Christopher Backus, Paul Adelstein, the very promising Luke Mitchell, Alexandra Daniels, Dave Baez, and many, many more.

Some good thoughts, here, but too dissociative to pull off a meaningful film.
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