Sunday, May 10, 2009

"Happy Mother's Day" Starring Julianne Moore


'now, go and wash your teeth!'

Julianne Moore isn't so good with her onscreen children. She ignores them, kills them, abandons them... even seduces them. Even when the famous redhead loves them (Children of Men, A Map of the World, The Forgotten) terrible fates await the poor tykes. If Moore didn't exude such warmth as a star onscreen she'd have a full-fledged Joan Crawford rep.

<--- Julianne is a much better mommy offscreen. She'd have to be! Pictured here with her two ginger kids: Cal (11... his birthday is the day after Julie's) and Liv (6).

Still if you had to choose one MooreMommy to be yours: coked up sexual Amber Waves in Boogie Nights? pharmaceutically enhanced foul-mothed step-mom Linda Partridge in Magnolia? cake-hating lesbian Laura Brown in The Hours? inappropriate and domineering Barbara Baekeland in Savage Grace? or any of her distracted housewives from Far From Heaven, [safe] to The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio ... none of whom have any time for their children / step children what with their heavy marital problems and poisonous environments? Which would it be? Or maybe you'd like to take your chances with one of her childless screen characters: Clarice Starling in Hannibal. Lila Crane in Psycho, etcetera...

It's your choice, just make one.
*

24 comments:

Unknown said...

I choose Rebecca Taylor from "Nine Months." Then I get Hugh Grant as meh daddy too :P

NATHANIEL R said...

Adam... way too avoid! We don't even know what kind of mother Rebecca Taylor will be since she's preggers the whole time. Maybe she'll be even worse than Barbara Baekaland.

that said... Hugh Grant. Point: Adam M.

Derreck said...

wow. i had no idea that Julianne Moore played so much horrible mothers/mothers in distress.

I know for sure, that i would NEVER want Laura Brown from "The Hours" as my mother. (SPOILERS) She's the reason her son is so screwed up in the future. She was too depressed and suicidal to be a proper mother to her son and even abandoned her family. Ok, she was battling a mental disease, but she really handled things with her son badly.

and if i had to choose, i would go with Amber Waves from "Boogie Nights". Not too fit to be a mom, but at least she gave two hoots about her kid.

FrenchGirl said...

why choose? it's too hard!

NATHANIEL R said...

why choose? "because I said so and I'm your mothe..." errrr, because it's fun to play Q&A games on this blog.

Chris Na Taraja said...

I think I would have to choose to be Rollergirl, not for the drugs, but to be in my favorate scene in Boogie nights, where Amber Waves says she is going to be her mother. how can you beat that?

oh...ok Nat, I guess.. Happy Mothers day then.

Arkaan said...

Probably her Children of Men mother. Sure, I'd die, but my death would trigger my mother to join an insurgency that would lead to the planet being saved.

Hayden said...

Laura Brown, so I could give her a hug.

Hayden said...

Oh, and so I could be Ed Harris.

Carl said...

Telly Paretta from "The Forgotten". If I am a kid and I am in s--t that deep, I want a mother who seriously goes the extra mile to save me.

Hayden said...

You guys...this is tragic. I just read that Julie Anne lost her own mother last week.

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2009/05/08/julianne-moore-tuberous-sclerosis-alliance/

She was 68.

J.D. said...

Hmmmm. I hadn't realized it, but waaaay too many of them remind me of my own mom.

I vote Julian by default.

*flu pandemic / terrorists swarming the road / the apocalypse, etc*Well, that didn't last long.

[Aw, Hayden's news. :'( ]

Ben said...

Cathy Whitaker so I could be nice to her after her husband leaves her and she can't be with the love of her life. After those experiences, she may well turn out to be an open-minded and open-hearted mother to her children.

Murtada said...

I love Laura Brown in the Hours. No exactly a good mother, but she was brave. She chose to end the life that was suffocating her and leap into the unknown to have a better chance. True she abandoned her child in the process. But I applaud her brave decision.

Derreck said...

Murtada -2:08pm.

hmm. i never really thought of Laura Brown as brave. It is an interesting perspective. It makes me think about her as a mother more. She made a horrible choice, but it was a choice where she would lose no matter what she picked. She "chose life" instead of being with her family and probably end up killing herself.

But does she fail as a mother? She leaves her kid at first with a woman so she can go and kill herself and her unborn child. That's bad.

She later stops herself because she can't do that to her child and decides to go through the birth. That's better.

But after the birth, she decides to leave her family for the sake of her own sanity. That's a matter of opinion whether that's good or bad.

What's worse? being a bad mother or no mother at all? (I think Kim Basinger as Marion in "The Door in the Floor" said something like that.)

or are they the same thing essentially?

NATHANIEL R said...

Murtada and Derreck... agreed that Laura Brown is an interesting ethical/moral/everything dilemma. But even though it's not one of my favorite Julianne performances I do think a lesser actress would have judged her too much and one thing i like about Julianne is that she never seems to judge a characters weaknesses or limitations, she just uses them for characterization.

which is i think why even her harder characters to love are still somehow accessible and engaging as our emotional proxies into the movie

or something.

i love her.

Anonymous said...

Laura Brown, simply for the moment when reading the description of her as a "cake-hating" I burst into pee-inducing laughter.

Walter L. Hollmann said...

I would definitely choose Julianne Moore's Barbara as my mommy. If that seems sick, well...well, I guess it is.

NATHANIEL R said...

walter... we're not here to judge.

Arkaan said...

Don't worry Walter, that was my initial response. But then I decided the judgement would be too much.

Andrew K. said...

Damn it. Hayden you took my thoughts. So I'll go with Cathy Whitaker, she's just ignoring me. It could be a whole lot worse. We've seen her track record.

Wayne B. said...

I'm Johnny-Come-Lately, all the great choices are taken. I'd say Cora Duvall from "Cookie's Fortune" cause even though she's slightly cuckoo, there's more to her than meets the eye. I just love how the ending goes for her.

CinechrisJ said...

Anyone who claims that the Evelyn Ryan character portrayed warmly by Moore in "Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio" 'didn't have any time for her children really missed something. A naturally gifted writer, Ryan gave up her budding career to be a mommy. Also, if you will note, Ryan always had a couple of kids in tow whilst writing her many entries. Much is made about the fact that she seldom left the house. Thus, Evelyn Ryan from "Prizewinner" is my choice for this poll.

Mother's Day Philippines said...

Well, for me my mom is the best among them all, and nothing can ever replace her. Anyway, thanks for sharing this post. Keep posting!

-yumi-