"Mama" -2012

 
     Hey all! My name is Jessica. I started this blog because my dad suggested I review movies in ASL. I thought it would be good practice and combine two things that I love, movies and sign language! My signing is not perfect, but it’s good practice for me and, hopefully, helpful to some of you.
     Today, I’m going to review the recently released Mama. It’s about two small girls that are found by their uncle after living alone in a cabin in the woods for five years. They survived with the help of a motherly spirit with a jealousy problem. I wanted to see it because it was produced by Guillermo Del Toro, whose work I enjoy. He’s a producer, director, and a writer, and has done all three for some movies. One example is his movie Pan’s Labyrinth, a Spanish film with beautifully dark characters and extremely creative creatures. I was hoping that his signature style would be present in this film as well, but sadly, I left the theatre disappointed. It seems he only funded the project; his input was nowhere to be found.
     The movie itself gets 5 out of 10 stars from me. There were a few scary moments, but overall, I wasn’t scared by the movie the way I wanted to be. There were a few times when the movie uses the pop-out-and-scare-you tactics, but the viewer can always see it coming. It does label itself as a ‘psychological thriller’ and not ‘horror’, but the director seems confused and bounces back and forth between the two. The plot definitely had some holes and left me thinking ‘Huh?’ more than once. The shining star of this movie was actor Jessica Chastain. She’s been acting for some time, but in the past two or three years, she’s landed some really good roles. She has most recently starred in blockbusters like The Help, Lawless, and the new picture Zero Dark Thirty. In Mama, she played the role of Annabel, a grunge rocker with no tolerance for children. Her boyfriend is the girls’ uncle, and she decides to stay with him, even though kids aren’t really her thing. Chastain shows us her journey from uncaring caretaker to the loving mother figure the children need. The radical change in Annabel’s character happens a little too quickly for my taste, but Chastain takes the opportunity and runs with it.
     That’s it for Mama. What did you think? Was this review helpful? Is there something I could have done better or something else you would have liked to know? Is there an upcoming movie that you’d like to see reviewed? Let me know in the comments, and if you enjoyed this, please pass it along to your friends!
-Jess

 Rating: 5 out of 10 stars
Would I see it again?: Maybe, if it was on TV or something
Would I buy it?: No