‘Mother’s Baby’ Review: A Paranoid Postpartum Thriller That Very Nearly Delivers

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Johanna Moder’s newest creation, titled “Mother’s Baby,” offers a captivating blend of suspense, paranoia, and dark humor throughout most of its duration. Regrettably, in its closing moments, a series of choices detract from its impact, compromising the story’s potency to resonate with the ominous uncertainties associated with postpartum depression.

Struggling to conceive, Julia, a middle-aged orchestra conductor, and her husband Georg visit a renowned fertility specialist, Dr. Vilfort, known for his advanced techniques. After Julia becomes pregnant, everything seems fine until the day she gives birth at Dr. Vilfort’s private clinic. There appears to be an issue when their newborn son is quickly taken away for urgent care before Julia can even cradle him, but he returns the next day without any problems.

In each interaction, Julia finds herself noticing unusual aspects that others seem to overlook. These accumulating oddities lead Julia to believe in her mind that the baby she’s struggling to breastfeed, whom she hasn’t named and struggles to connect with, may not actually be hers. As Gerlinde (Julia Franz Richter), their assigned midwife from the clinic, makes overly familiar home visits, Georg appears oblivious, creating tension in their marriage and leaving Julia feeling uneasy. These circumstances effectively distance Julia as she begins to draw parallels between the baby’s strange behavior and the calm, smirking axolotls she observes at Vilfort’s facility. Could there possibly be a connection?

A movie that leans more towards horror might reveal its secrets through a protagonist’s deep dive into online research, but “Mother’s Baby” is subtler, using hints and innuendos instead. The film introduces its peculiar concepts via unusual events and bizarre interactions with secondary characters who appear briefly before disappearing from both the screen and the story. Despite its many possibilities, it keeps them grounded through Leuenberger’s superbly restrained performance. The actress manages to maintain a delicate balance of instability throughout, even in absurd scenes where Moder places Julia next to an innocent baby, whose mere presence appears to distress her.

The movie is surprisingly humorous at times, yet it tackles difficult topics related to early motherhood and transforms them into sharp and witty film content. By aiming at the profound and intangible bond of a mother’s love and seemingly erasing it from Julia’s character, “Mother’s Baby” creates an intense suspense as it delves deeper into genre elements, while postponing resolution for as long as feasible. It’s also worth mentioning that Bang skillfully portrays his role with a hint of sinister undertones in each conversation, never fully revealing his intentions.

In its concluding stages, the movie struggles slightly by trying to offer explanations, even if they’re vague. The film is most intriguing when the potential outcomes remain uncertain, using ominous settings with eerie, claw-like canopies and tense scenes that make both Julia and viewers doubt everything they witness. However, towards the end, “Mother’s Baby” takes an unusual turn by opting for a more concrete and straightforward narrative approach, despite the fact that it may not accurately depict the entire truth or completely deviate from it.

Regardless of which path the story takes from now, introducing two equally instructive possibilities splits it into divergent directions when its power lies in maintaining ambiguity. Giving up this enigmatic feeling for a known outcome would strip the narrative of its most chilling emotional release. However, it’s remarkable how well the film has managed to hold together until this point, a feat that, coupled with its Sundance premiere and fellow Berlin competition title “If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You”, hints at an engaging progression in pregnancy and motherhood horror. This evolution seems to be moving towards something more hauntingly personal and psychological, making it both intriguing and highly enjoyable.

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2025-02-19 02:46