The Mother Wound
“The Mother Wound” is a heart-filled drama about the dysfunctional relationship between two daughters and their mother. Each character is so defined and unique and the film allows us, as viewers, to explore each relationship independently and relate to each character in some way or another.
First thing is first, the acting. Each actress and actor brought their characters to life in a very believable fashion. We have an artistic, but drug addicted, daughter named Kat who serves as the protagonist. We have the snarky, (very) opinionated mother who makes extremely harsh criticisms towards her daughters and their lifestyles. Then we have Jewels, the sister of Kat, who suffers from an eating disorder and what seems to be borderline depression. I believed them all 100% and felt extremely compelled to follow their messy relationships with one another to see if they come to a resolution. I loved their performance. And the acting from Sean Lamb’s character, Chris, destroyed me in the last couple of minutes. Every character we are introduced to in this film feels authentic and I do firmly believe this was casted just right.
The cinematography had added a lot of depth to the characters. There were a few nice camera shots throughout that were very subtle, yet said a lot about the characters. My favorite moments regarding the cinematography are when Jewel struggles with her eating disorder and is shown through reflective objects. It adds so much weight not only to her character, but the overall piece of the film. My all time favorite shot in this short that gave me goosebumps was towards the end when we see a reflection of sorts in a window. It’s haunting, which is exactly what Jewels gives off tonally. When Kat does drugs, the editing and close ups of her face are choppy and personal. We feel exactly what Kat is going through. We don’t know why she has started doing drugs, or when for that matter, but the fact is we feel it and we can’t help but hope that she doesn’t take things too far because she has such talent for painting. Whenever the camera is focused on their mother it’s either distant, or up close and personal. When it’s distant we are supposed to relate to her daughters seeing as how different they are. However, when it’s a close up, not only are we to see her from her daughter’s perspectives – that is cold, distasteful, and snobby – but we are supposed to see her for who she is – which is all that her daughter’s see; yet there’s something caring about her. By the end it’s revealed who she gets her attitude from.
The director, Erica Rowley, did a fantastic job at making this piece of art feel authentic. For being under $5,000, it was nicely put together and I was surprised that it was 30 minutes long. It had so much substance and having a small budget like that doesn’t make a film, especially 30 minutes, easy. I’ve seen dramatic shorts that cost $10,000 and are only 9 minutes long and don’t nearly have enough substance as this does. I wasn’t expecting to be almost in tears by the end when I started this, but it did, and I’m still trying to process how quick it happened. The performance of the actors, the music, and the direction all combined make this whole film worth watching.
