Sundance

Motherhood

By ROB NELSON

An iDeal Partners Film Fund presentation of a Killer Films/John Wells production, in association with 120db Prods. (International sales: Endeavor, Los Angeles.) Produced by Jana Edelbaum, Rachel Cohen, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon. Executive producers, John Wells, Michael Lesser, Daniel Crown. Directed, written by Katherine Dieckmann.
 
With: Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie Driver, David Shallipp, Matthew Shallipp, Daisy Tahan, Javier Picayo, Jodie Foster, Alice Drummond.
 

Though pregnant with possibility, "Motherhood" fails to deliver. As a sleepless, serially blogging, financially strapped, generally embittered Manhattan mom of two, Uma Thurman looks convincingly frumpy. But a would-be comedic script by director Katherine Dieckmann ("Diggers") forces the star to spout such geysers of self-pity, you'd think motherhood in the West Village was akin to, say, motherhood in Eastern Congo. World preem at Sundance went over like a lead balloon among viewers who laughed more at pic's implausibilities than at jokes per se. Name actors will ensure adoption of this fussy baby by smallscreen folks, but other pickups seem iffy.

Street parking, dog poop, a distracted hubby (miscast Anthony Edwards) and location shooting on her block drive Eliza (Thurman) around the bend, though a shopping spree with pal Sheila (Minnie Driver) and an extended in-home visit from a hunky young messenger (Javier Picayo), who admires the "poetical" view from her walkup, provide momentary relief.

Eliza, whose mommy-blog is called "The Bjorn Identity," describes herself as a former writer for weekly papers that "aren't the same anymore" (Dieckmann wrote film reviews for the Village Voice). Regretting that her classist blogs address only the smallest percentage of the population, Eliza provides a sharp critique of motherhood -- though the pic's title sounds much too universal for the relative hardships onscreen.

The film's off-putting sense of humor has Jodie Foster, playing herself in a cameo, cursing at paparazzi, and Eliza musing about the "benefits of 9/11" when it comes to cell-phone coverage. Near the end of a lean 89 minutes, Eliza learns to feel fortunate, but by then, audience empathy is scarce to nonexistent.

Sporting rumpled clothes, unkempt brown hair and the eyeglasses of yesteryear, Thurman appears in every scene, which is less advantageous to the star than it may sound. Halfway through, Driver's Sheila briefly takes centerstage, getting angry that Eliza blogged about Sheila's illicit bathtub pleasure with a kid's toy. By default, the cast's strongest impression is made by 80-year-old Alice Drummond (the spooked librarian in the first scene of "Ghostbusters") as Eliza's forgivably needy neighbor.

Shooting by Nancy Schreiber is sitcom-bright; real-life West Village residents are thanked in the end credits for their "patience."

Camera (Technicolor), Nancy Schreiber; editor, Michael R. Miller; music, Joe Henry; production designer, Debbie De Villa; art director, Charlie Kulsziski; set decorator, Susan Ogu; costume designer, Susan Lyall; sound (Dolby Digital), Brian Miksis; supervising sound editor, Marshall Grupp; special effects, Phillip Beck; associate producer, Yee Yeo Chang; assistant director, Urs Hirschbiegel; casting, Laura Rosenthal. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres), Jan. 21, 2009. Running time: 89 MIN.