Mother Mary

CinemaSerf

The eponymous rock star (Anne Hathaway - or perhaps Margot Robbie or Natalie Portman?) has had some sort of an incident with her erstwhile friend and fashion designer "Sam" (Michaela Coel) and so when she turns up unannounced at her home in the middle of a thunderstorm, she can't be too surprised that the reception she gets is just as wet. She needs a frock. A frock to end all frocks. She needs "Sam" to design it for her, as only she really understands her; knows her; yada yada... Barring a few interventions from her assistant "Hilda" (Hunter Schafer) and some briefly menacing scissor-wielding moments this is essentially a slightly cryptic analysis of their relationship and visually it reminded me of "In Fabric" (2018) at times. It's extremely dialogue heavy and for a good portion of it, it makes you think it could be far more effectively performed on a creatively lit theatrical stage. There's precious little context for us, either, in terms of what drove them apart in the first place or of just what the motivation is for a reconciliation that "Sam" seems entirely indifferent, even hostile, to. Conceptually, it might be about stripping back the layers of superficiality that surround not just this industry, but of life in general? Perhaps a critique of the fickleness of fame and friendships? In any case it doesn't really present these women with anything like enough depth for us to really care, and as we entered the final, more fantastical and perhaps metaphorical phase, I began to lose interest a bit. I find Coel a very natural actor to watch, but Hathaway was interchangeable with half a dozen actors and despite her best attempts with a couple of musical performances I just didn't feel engaged.