40
Turturro deserves four stars – but the rest of Moretti’s saggy melodrama is scarcely half as good.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
Among the excellent principals, top-billed Turturro enlivens things wonderfully, but the real star, Buy, is magnificent.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
Simplicity and maturity of vision are the virtues here, good qualities but perhaps a little too understated for major attention-grabbing.
70
Moretti’s exploration of loss is unquestionably affecting, and My Mother has powerful moments, yet they’re not always well integrated with the broadly pitched moviemaking scenes, featuring a caricaturish John Turturro.
60
Mia Madre is an intimate and sincerely made family portrait, which ends up betraying its own indifference to anything beyond the confines of the family.
80
Screen International by Lee Marshall
Its relatively tranquil surface, its small amusements (many of them revolving around a tasty turn by John Turturro as a histrionically insecure American leading man), its moments of touching, almost Sirkian melodrama, above all its ability to tease resonant themes out of seemingly inconsequential scenes or lines of dialogue, make for a film that is greater than the sum of its parts.
83
The Playlist by Oliver Lyttelton
As ever, Moretti creates a rich and incredibly detailed world, one where every character has a life that stretches far beyond their on-screen scenes.
80
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Mia Madre is a tremendously smart and enjoyable movie.