All the elements of the story fit impeccably together for a humorous and occasionally wrenching examination of relationships.
Overview
After leaving her daughter Jessica in a small town in Pernambuco to be raised by relatives, Val spends the next 13 years working as a nanny to Fabinho in São Paulo. She has financial stability but has to live with the guilt of having not raised Jessica herself. As Fabinho’s university entrance exams approach, Jessica reappears in her life and seems to want to give her mother a second chance. However, Jessica has not been raised to be a servant and her very existence will turn Val’s routine on its head. With precision and humour, the subtle and powerful forces that keep rigid class structures in place and how the youth may just be the ones to shake it all up.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
The characters are so accustomed to keeping up appearances that they can't bring themselves to say what's bugging them. Their interactions may be mild, but the claustrophobic imagery creates the sense of being trapped in a powder keg.
Though hardly revolutionary, "Mother" subverts conventions - both cinematic and social.
The Second Mother is an interesting look at generational and class divides in Brazil, without the feel of a lecture or lesson.
We've seen plenty of stories about the arrival of a mysterious stranger upsetting the order of things. But "The Second Mother," Brazilian writer and director Anna Muylaert's outstanding film, is different.
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