Rent My Mother (2004)

Pretty surreal! - My Mother review by CP Customer

This is all a bit wierd and slightly disturbing! Wouldn’t have wanted a mum like her! Watch it if you have a fairly open mind regarding prostitution, obsession, incest and kinky sex...

One of the most boring & turgid films I've ever seen, but with the greatest movie ending ever - My Mother review by TB

I realise the title is an enormously bold claim to make, but I absolutely stand by it. I will come to it properly later on though.

This film is like nothing I have ever seen or probably will ever see again. There is a certain element of when you try to explain it, people just won't believe you & think you're either embellishing it or just making it up. But everything I say now is true.

This film is about a 17 year old French boy called Pierre who goes to live with his parents in their villa in the Canary Islands. The father leaves for business and then a couple of days later, Pierre is told by his mother Helene in a totally uninterested & matter of fact way that his father has died in a horrific plane accident. It is then revealed that Helene is unbelievably promiscuous and well-known in the neighborhood for this, has slept with pretty much every man she meets, all with the acceptance of her husband and organises mass orgies. She then demands that Pierre accepts this about her and also become involved.

From there, we are treated to seeing Helene's friend forcibly taking Pierre's virginity on Helene's instructions in the middle of a public town square; Pierre finding his father's pornography collection & deciding that the only course of action is to masturbate then defecate over it; taking part in his mother's sex parties which eventually lead to incest; I mean the list just goes on. And mixed in with all this, the script also has this obsession with Pierre repeatedly pleasuring himself in public places, for inexplicably no reason.

In terms of acting, Huppert, who is usually flawless, just looks like she's coasting through and is totally bored with the whole thing. She has pretty much one expression: blank boredom. Even in the midst of an orgy she looks like she is about to drop off to sleep. There does, however, need to be significant respect given to Louis Garrel. What he does in this film is at times absolutely cringe-worthy and mortifying. He doesn't leave himself with a shred of dignity and I actually felt embarrassed for him, after watching him repeatedly giving himself one in various grimy situations.

As much as seeing the above acts may to some be unbelievably provocative, the honest truth is that for me it was just boring. Once you accept the premise of the film, which is just that it's entire MO is to shock you in whatever way it can, it just becomes like a child who has learnt swearwords and keeps shouting them out. The first time you may be mildly shocked, by the 10th it's just boring and attention seeking.

Then we come to the ending. I mean, it is not a stretch to say it is a work of genius. But genius as in "We have just spent the last 90 minutes putting the audience through the biggest sleaze-fest imaginable, where literally nothing was off-limits. We have to top that and have a memorable ending for people to leave with." However, nothing in any way, shape or form can prepare you for what you see. When the film finished, completely abruptly and with no warning, I just burst out laughing. I then immediately went back and re-watched it, just to make sure I wasn't imagining it. And the second time I watched it, it was even funnier.

As much as I give this film 2 stars, for me, it was worth sitting through all that dreck just to have this piece of cinematic genius wrap it all up. You'll laugh, rub your eyes and genuinely question what you just saw. And you'll never, ever forget it.