64
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleIn Kawase’s delicate hands, however, it breathes with an everyday poignancy.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSan Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonNaomi Kawase’s films don’t hammer toward arbitrary plot points but flow like water, so “True Mothers” doesn’t unfold like a Hollywood blockbuster, or indeed, even most arthouse films. It courses along softly and confidently, with unexpected ebbs and estuaries.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungIt is, at least in its closing hour, a moving dramatization of maternal feelings.
- 67IndieWireRyan LattanzioIndieWireRyan LattanzioThe film shimmers with beauty and sadness despite its length, and the Japanese director’s background as both a photographer and a documentary filmmaker brings a gossamer naturalism to this realistic tale about a young woman’s regrets over abandoning her child years after the fact.
- 67Austin ChronicleJenny NulfAustin ChronicleJenny NulfThe longer it goes, the more True Mothers gets weighed down by its melodrama. Kawase is just hopeful and soft enough to keep her film glowing, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing, and is a bit frustrating with its blatant red herrings.
- 63Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreTrue Mothers is a melodrama with 90 minutes of story awash in 139 minutes of movie. Kawase holds our interest by letting us see the unexpressed pain of characters generally too well-mannered to express loss, shock, outrage and resentment out loud.
- 60The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergOnly a mountain couldn’t be moved by True Mothers — but like Asato’s parentage, the sources of that effect are complex. From one angle, True Mothers is sensitive and layered. From another, the tricks it plays with perspective constitute an all-too-calculated ploy for tears.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThere is a sustained emotional seriousness in this movie, with committed performances.
- 50VarietyMaggie LeeVarietyMaggie LeeAdapting Mizuki Tsujimura’s novel of the same name helps impose more of a narrative framework than is typically found in Kawase’s oeuvre, although the film’s mix of genres — from marital drama to teen romance to social commentary — don’t gel.