Mother (Madeo)

She's fiercely dysfunctional
By Michael O'Sullivan
Friday, March 26, 2010

You know that story about the mother who, in a feat of adrenaline-fueled strength, is momentarily able to lift a car -- or some other heavy object -- off her trapped child? Well, what if, in her zeal, that woman were to set down the car . . . on someone else's head? That, essentially, is the question raised by "Mother," a story of maternal love carried to horrific extremes.

As with director Bong Joon-ho's previous film "The Host," "Mother" also is a movie about a monster. Only this one wears an apron.

The haunting Korean thriller concerns Do-joon (Won Bin), a mentally disabled young man who lives at home with his mom (Kim Hye-ja), an herbalist and naturopath who is her son's sole support. With no father in the picture, the two, somewhat unnaturally, share a bed. That would be creepy enough, but Mother, who is never referred to by any other name, also manifests a disturbing fascination with her 27-year-old son's private parts. One bizarre scene shows her watching Do-joon urinate, with an unnatural curiosity. Later in the movie, there are hints of an even more dysfunctional family history.

But things turn especially ugly when Do-joon, after blacking out from a night of drinking, is arrested for the murder of a teenaged schoolgirl (Moon Hee-ra) he only vaguely remembers encountering on the way home. As a result of the young man's seemingly coerced confession, we're initially not certain about his guilt (or innocence).

Mother, on the other hand, is.

Kicking into full battle mode, she immediately hires a lawyer (Yu Mou-young). But when he proves incompetent, and the police refuse to look at other suspects, Mother is forced to take matters into her own hands, visiting the crime scene and doing a bit of investigating on her own. At one point, she sneaks into the apartment of Do-joon's best friend, Jin-tae (Jin Goo), thinking that he may be the real culprit. When that lead proves false, however, Mother enlists Jin-tae to rough up some former boyfriends of the murdered girl, in the hope of finding further leads. But in that attempt to flush out other suspects, she uncovers a world of sexual promiscuity and intrigue beyond anything she bargained for.

Of course, it doesn't faze her.

Who wouldn't love to have such a mother? Someone to advocate on your behalf when you're powerless and may be innocent? Hollywood -- or at least the Lifetime channel -- thrives on stuff like this.

Except this isn't that movie. Mother is more grotesque than heroic. Yet as freakish as she sounds, she comes across not as a caricature, but merely as a kind of profoundly misguided Everywoman. True, she's a bit of a nut. But whose mother isn't?

With her fierce yet perpetually worried eyes, Kim shows Mother to be the worst kind of monster. Meaning one we recognize.

Contains violence, obscenity, nudity and sex. In Korean with English subtitles.