The movie, The Good Mother which is on Amazon Prime Video, is a suspenseful drama that was announced on August 2, 2023 and was released on September 1st, 2023. The Good Mother follows a journalist Marissa Bennings (Hilary Swank) who is grieving the murder of her estranged son and forms an unlikely alliance with his pregnant girlfriend Paige (Olivia Cooke) to track down the killers that are responsible for the death of Marissa’s son and Paige’s boyfriend. Both the journalist and the girlfriend confront a world of drugs and corruption in the small city of Albany in New York and learn a deep and sinister revelation about why their loved one was murdered which makes them question everything.
The movie title, The Good Mother is a bit ironic because Marissa Bennings was not that great of a mother due to her addiction to alcohol and her son Michael, was an opioid addict and a criminal, including himself in drug trafficking and bad crimes. Marissa also has another son, Toby who is a cop. Toby is the one who went to her and told her that Michael was killed in a drug deal gone wrong. The acceptance of death indicates that they have long grieved in advance and knew something was going to happen to Michael with how he lived his life. At first Marissa and Paige did not get along, getting in a fight and Marissa slapping Paige and blaming her for the death of her son. However Paige bounces back and shows Marissa she really cares about him and wants to know what exactly happened, so they decide they can work together to find out the truth.
The movie was good but could have been better. It has dramatic potential, and a talented cast. However, nothing can compensate for the movie’s underwhelming story. Many people who watched the movie rated the movie 4.6 out of 10 on many online websites and reviews, giving at most two stars due to the terrible inconclusive ending as it just finished without explaining anything that happened. It felt like the movie was just getting good and exciting and then nothing. Many individuals also thought the movie was a bit slow and boring and did not show drama or action until it ended. Many individuals thought “the trailer was better than the movie” because it was very misleading according to Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie is one and a half hours long. I thought the movie could have been better for being that long of a movie. In the end, as much as I liked some parts of the movie, it definitely isn’t my favorite as it lacked certain aspects and wasn’t written and shown the way it should have been.