You Are Not My Mother
Char (Hazel Doupe) lives in North Dublin with her mother Angela (Carolyn Bracken) and her grandmother Rita (Ingrid Craigie). Life is tough for the young girl, with her grandmother in poor health and her mother often depressed and lying in bed. School is also hard and Char is often bullied because she doesn't fit in with the other students. One morning, while taking Char to school, Angela announces that "she can't do this anymore", and later her car is found abandoned in a field. Char and Rita report her disappearance to the police, but little is done to find her.
A few days later, Angela returns, acting as if nothing has happened and all's right with the world. But Char is suspicious of this "new" mother. Strange things happen, including the poisoning of Char's Uncle Aaron. Char becomes friends with one of her former bullies, and confides the story of how her grandmother, believing her to be a changeling, placed her by a fire to get the real Char back. Her friend, Suzanne says the new Angela must also be a changeling and they have to repeat the fire ritual in order to get her real mother back.
I'll just say this movie was not for me. It had nothing to do with it being a slow-paced, slow-burn kind of story, but I could never connect with it. Maybe because changelings are not a common theme here, I don't know. But I couldn't tell if the movie was really about changelings or about mental health issues, as it rather blurred the lines. The acting was good enough, but I was just not engaged. The film has a lot of positive reviews, but there are also others who did not like it. You'll have to decide for yourself. I'll give this movie 3 shaky Stars.
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