SPC Adopts ‘Mother and Child’

With the kind of Best Actress buzz that An Education‘s Carey Mulligan is receiving, its no surprise that Sony Pictures Classics didn’t speed up the adoption process on Rodrigo Garcia’s Mother and Child. A late deal and a 2010 release is exactly what might help Annette Bening’s own chances at repeat wins. You see, there is a group of people (including myself) that think that her take as a bitter, angry, old hag is a winning performance. I thought that the character initially came across as a facile and one dimensional but a little bit past the point where Jimmy Smits’ character enters her life, her part gets tweaked ever so slightly – the emotional make-up of her character is made more complex. And if she receives this kind of attention, it could add weight to supporting actress nods for Naomi Watts? 

SPC announced that they have picked up the rights to the pic and will try and they’ll probably try and set a course that would allow the film to play before more festival audiences. the film has played at the Toronto International Film Festival and San Sebastian.

In overlapping stories, this is a drama centered around three women: A 50-year-old woman (Bening), the daughter (Watts) she gave up for adoption 35 years ago, and an African American woman (Kerry Washington) looking to adopt a child of her own. Its about the choices we make, the chances we miss, the opportunities we seize and the power of the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child.