If you thought Bong Joon-Ho might be going soft after The Host—a goopy monster movie that nevertheless included an endearing, fatherhood storyline—Mother, his follow-up, quickly reasserted his place as one of cinema’s premiere pessimists about human nature. Just when you think this is going to be a crime story about a misunderstood innocent, it unravels to reveal the insidiousness that exists in almost every person we meet. The film’s title character (Kim Hye-ja) is the single mother to a young-adult son named Do-joon (Won Bin). Because Do-joon appears to be developmentally delayed—one character cruelly calls him a “dumb retard”—he still lives with his mother. Yet she seems to have also played a hand in his arrested development, spooning food into his mouth and allowing him to still sleep in her bed. When a local high-school girl is found murdered and the police arrest Do-joon for the crime, her protective instincts kick into an even higher gear. Kim gives a deeply unsettling, yet somehow sweet, performance as this multifaceted woman; the film opens with a bravura dance sequence of sorts that allows her to project the character’s many sides. Amidst the darkness and suspense, Bong also manages two sequences of comic farce: one of the police attempting to recreate the crime and another at the victim’s funeral. In both cases, it’s as if a dark tragedy has been cast with lovable clowns. Perhaps that’s what keeps Bong—despite films like Barking Dogs Never Bite, Memories of Murder, Parasite, and this—from coming across as a miserable misanthrope. He may not have any faith in his characters, but he doesn’t hate them for it.
(3/5/2025)
