MOTHER AND CHILD (2010) (***)

Director Rodrigo Garcia has history of making hyperlink films where the lives of various characters overlap. MOTHER AND CHILD actually focuses on less characters than his NINE LIVES or THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER. With a touch of poetry, the film is a character piece about what it means to be a mother and have a mother.

Karen (Annette Bening, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT) is a nurse, who is caring for her ailing mother Nora (Eileen Ryan, MAGNOLIA). Though it happened more than 35 years ago, the dying woman won't let her daughter live down a teen pregnancy. That child was given up for adoption and later named Elizabeth (Naomi Watts, KING KONG). Now she's a ruthless businesswoman whose determination impresses her new boss Paul (Samuel L. Jackson, PULP FICTION). And turns him on. Meanwhile, Lucy (Kerry Washington, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND) is struggling with her inability to get pregnant and decides to adopt with husband Joseph (David Ramsey, CON AIR).

While it never spells it out, the film looks at how the mother/daughter relationship of the characters influences their whole lives. Karen has received nothing but ridicule from her mother. At work, she's a cold taskmaster, which doesn't make things easy for the new nurse Paco (Jimmy Smits, TV's DEXTER), who just wants to meet new people in his new city. Karen resents how close her mother seems with their maid Sofia (Elpidia Carrillo, PREDATOR) and her young daughter Cristi (Simone Lopez).

Elizabeth makes Karen seem warm in comparison. She falls into bed with men for momentary pleasure. She has nothing but contempt for her cheery neighbors Steven (Marc Blucas, TV's BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) and Tracy (Carla Gallo, SUPERBAD). It would bring her joy just to wipe that smile off the face of the pregnant Tracy. She boldly seduces Paul and ends it just as boldly. It seems she did it just to see how easy it was to do. When she winds up pregnant, her reaction is as complex as all of her behavior is.

Sofia really wants to be a mother, or so she thinks. The lack of a pregnancy has created tension between her and her husband. She can't stop talking when she interviews with Ray (Shareeka Epps, HALF NELSON), a woman putting her unborn child up for adoption. But Sofia's honesty is what impresses Ray, who has her own issues with her mother Leticia (Lisa Gay Hamilton, JACKIE BROWN), who had her when she was young. Sofia's mother Ada (S. Epatha Merkerson, TV's LAW & ORDER) believes having a baby should be much easier than all of this.

Garcia attempts to varying degrees to flesh out many of his characters. Karen has the biggest arch. In coming to terms with her own issues with her mother, she begins to come into herself and allow herself to be happy again. She seeks out the daughter she gave up. Garcia finds a bittersweet twist to how one might expect that search to end up. Of course, Bening is simply amazing, especially in handling the changes in the character. While the film makes leaps in time, Bening never makes the shifts in her character seem abrupt.

Watts makes Elizabeth the film's most fascinating and frustrating character. The character is unlikable. Watts rightfully never apologizes for her character's behavior. Elizabeth is lashing out at a world where she has never found any happiness. Her mother giving her up has profoundly affected her whether she'd ever admit it or not. Because, Garcia leaves many questions about why she does what she does, we are left wondering about her, which has a good and bad effect depending on the question.

In developing so many characters, Garcia sometimes wanders away from his core theme of mothers and daughters. This develops loose ends. Characters that seem very important are developed and then put in the background. Smits' Paco is the biggest victim of this problem.

Those are weaknesses and not problems though. How Garcia brings his story full circle is surprising. At first it seems like an unfair emotional sledgehammer. But as the camera moves away from the final shot, we get a sense of how the ending is happier than it could have been if it ended in a more conventional way and still remained true to its unique characters.