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'Night, Mother

1986, Movie, PG-13, 96 mins

'Night, Mother: Review

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Deceptively complex, this adaptation of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner hews closely to the grim line of the stage play and seldom compromises. It's early evening in a small house in the Midwest. Jessie Cates (Sissy Spacek), a woman in her late 30s, is going about what seems to be a normal routine, as though she is about to take a trip. She cleans the refrigerator, cancels the newspaper delivery, packs and labels her clothes for the Salvation Army, and does a few other chores. After 10 minutes or so have elapsed, she tells her mother (Anne Bancroft) that she is going to kill herself later that evening. Jessie is an epileptic; she has an ex-husband and a son who is on his way to becoming a criminal. The only person she ever loved, her father, has died and now she is living with her mother. Her life has spun out of control and she is apparently exercising her only remaining option by ending it. Director Tom Moore, who also directed the play, makes a fairly good debut in a difficult task. Spacek and Bancroft have the only speaking roles, but brief glimpses of some of the other family members are provided in an effort to keep the picture from seeming totally stagebound, which it is. Marsha Norman's script had many levels, switching sympathies for both actresses at the turn of a phrase. It is to her credit that it works. leave a comment
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