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For his Hitchcock-inspired thriller, Mother, South Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong tossed in every suspense element except the kitchen sink to create a unique, yet creepy story that will keep your attention until the end.

Yoon Do-joon (Bin Won) is a mentally unstable 28-year-old with a bad grasp of reality, a horrible memory and a foul temper. While stumbling drunkenly towards home one night, he follows a promiscuous teenage girl who won't give him the time of day. When she turns up dead the next day, Do-joon is arrested for her murder.

Mother (Hye-ja Kim), whom Do-joon still sleeps with on a nightly basis, is overcome with grief and an unsettling determination to find the real killers. The police don't care. The lawyer she can't afford doesn't care. Only Do-joon's delinquent friend, Jin-tae (Ku Jin) offers assistance, but only after forcing her to pay him compensation after she embarrasses him at a police station.


We soon learn the fruit hasn't fallen far from the tree, and we learn that Mother, who's obsessed with acupuncture and herbs, is even more unstable than her son. As such, it becomes increasingly difficult to root for her as she goes to disturbing lengths to free her son.

Nominated for a Best Foreign Film trophy at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards, Mother is complicated because it begins rather lightheartedly. However, just when you wonder what the big hubbub was all about, director Bong effectively turns the plot on its head; and you are dropped down into a twisting rabbit hole of dark secrets and perpetual doubt.

Hye-ja Kim delivers an unsettling performance as a heroine whose creepiness is only outdone by her son. Won does nothing to make him stand out from the crowd while Jin quietly infuses his character with a cold, calculating sense of danger that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

On a letter grade scale from A being excellent to F for failing, Mother receives a B.
    
Mother is rated R and has a running time of 128 minutes.

Now showing through May 27 @
Tivoli Cinemas
Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO
Visit www.tivolikc.com or call 913-383-7756 for show times.

By Michael D. Smith

Indie Film Editor

Michael D. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri followed by a Master of Arts in history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Inspired by such critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael started reviewing films in 1992 for College of the Ozarks's student-run newspaper. After returning to the Kansas City area in 1994, he continued film reviewing by writing for the Cass County Democrat Missourian in Harrisonville.

In 2000 Michael joined Sun Publications in Overland Park, Kansas where he served as its film critic and Arts and Entertainment Editor. During his tenure there, he was also the film critic for the "Fine Arts Radio Hour" and "Celebrity Scoop" radio shows on KXTR. After leaving the Sun in late 2002, he became the A&E writer for the Olathe News in Olathe, Kansas. He also worked as a freelance writer for The Squire in Leawood, Showcase Publishing in Lake Ozark, Missouri and the Kansas City Star.

Michael is currently a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, a professional film critic organization established in 1966 by the late Dr. James Loutzenhiser.

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