Celebrating Mom: Movies for Mother’s Day
Looking for movies to watch over the Mother’s Day weekend? We’ve got a variety to choose from, whatever you’re looking for.
If you think your Mom is a superhero – we do too. (Frankly, we don’t know how Moms pull off the million things they accomplish.) Pixar’s The Incredibles features our favorite superhero Mom – Helen Parr a.k.a. Elastigirl. Not only does Helen soothe her frustrated husband, deal with her son’s misbehavior at school, juggle her baby, and calm her angsty teenage daughter, but she also saves the world. Just another day’s work for moms everywhere…
Even moms who can’t leap buildings with a single bound still do superhuman things. In Wonder, Augie’s mom provides love and support as he faces the world with a serious facial deformity. Lorenzo’s parents do everything they can to find a cure for his rare disease in Lorenzo’s Oil. And Malia’s mom is willing to fight any battle to ensure that her dyslexic daughter gets the help she needs to succeed in Won’t Back Down.
If you want to celebrate the mother/daughter bond, Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again highlight a daughter’s relationship with her mother as she gets married and, in the sequel, as she copes with her mother’s death. Never fear – with the bouncy ABBA soundtrack and the sun-soaked Greek setting – this story can’t stay sad but bubbles irresistibly upward.
We all know that even the most loving moms and kids sometimes clash. In Brave, headstrong Merida’s defiance leads to her mother being transformed into a bear. Merida must summon her courage and ingenuity to save her. A contentious mother/daughter pair learn to understand one another in Freaky Friday after they wake up in each other’s bodies. And in The Guilt Trip, a grown man and his mother mend their relationship on a cross country trip.
Some moms do the backbreaking work of raising a child on their own. In Riding in Cars with Boys, fifteen-year-old Beverly discovers she’s pregnant. Choosing to marry the father and raise their child, Beverly discovers that motherhood brings enormous responsibilities and wrenching decisions. Loretta, a single mother with substance abuse issues, is sent back to Mississippi by her mother to sober up and become a fit parent in Down in the Delta.
And not all mothers are biological parents. Instant Family tells the story of a couple who decide to become foster and adoptive parents and face the challenges of three children who are carrying a lot of baggage. (This otherwise heartwarming movie does contain a fair amount of profanity.) A young nun becomes the de facto mother of seven children when she is hired as their governess in The Sound of Music – a family friendly choice for all ages. In Raising Helen, a young woman is devastated by the death of her sister, only to then be faced with the challenge of raising her three children. And a homeless young man gets taken into the home of the Touhy family in The Blind Side, where he finds the love and support he needs to build his skills and make it to the NFL.
Lion tells the moving story of a young man who learns that there’s no such thing as too many parents. When he’s only five years old, Saroo gets lost in India. Subsequently adopted by an Australian family, Saroo grows up in an environment of love and security, but remains haunted by the mother he lost. Then technology raises the possibility that he can find his birth family again…