Mother And Child

‘Mother and Child’ is a heartrending account of the profound relationship between a mother and her child. The movie features various subplots, which interlink to form an intricate story that will have you smiling with tears in your eyes.

We first meet Karen (Annette Bening), a beautiful young woman, who carries a heavy burden from the past. Karen got pregnant when she was 14, and gave up her daughter for adoption right after she was born. Years later, she opens up her heart to Paco (Jimmy Smits), who encourages her to try to find her daughter. Elsewhere, we see that her daughter, Elizabeth (Naomi Watts), has grown up to be a strong and hardhearted woman. She has a prosperous career as an attorney at a law firm, where she works under Paul (Samuel L Jackson). They soon have an affair, and she ends up getting pregnant. Being used to a solitary life, she does not tell Paul about the pregnancy, and simply quits the job and moves to a new apartment. As she looks for a new job, she revisits her adoption center, where she files a letter to search for her biological mother. We then see Lucy, who is a baker and longs for children, but is infertile. She has been through heartbreak once, when a young woman agreed to give her a baby, but backed off later.

As the movie progresses, Elizabeth dies during childbirth, and Lucy adopts her daughter, whom she names Ella. As Karen contacts the adoption center, she learns of Elizabeth’s death, and gets a letter that informs her that she has a granddaughter. Even though she is devastated by the death of her daughter whom she had never met, she is delighted to meet Lucy and Ella, who live in her neighborhood.