Two Mothers (Adore)

Anne Fontaine's film "Adore", based on a short story by Doris Lessing, tells of the relationship between two mature women and two young men (each other's sons), an issue that in some societies still, just as it used to be, is a taboo. This topic has been treated extensively by films with different approaches.

The thesis of the film alludes primarily to the moral restraints that people, as part of a society, are imposed. What people are taught is not always in agreement with the desire and the insatiable human need to live and love fully; logic becomes the least important thing when love and sexual desire are combined and are transformed into an incentive for life.

The film is approached from different angles of great interest, one of them is the friendship between the two women, who have known each other since childhood and have preserved and tighten their friendship the years.

At times, the story manages to disturb the viewer without discomforting, while speculating on a false incestuous immorality. Elements such as open spaces; intensely blue skies melting with the ocean into the horizon; the languor of the couples lying down on a wooden board in the sea sunbathing, result in a manifestation of eroticism, nurtured by time and overwhelmed by the age of each participant to this relationship (that is not so unexpected), in which alcohol is only a pretext to abandon inhibitions around sexual desire. 

The movie was filmed in Australia, whose secluded beaches and relaxed lifestyle contribute to make the characters feel they are allowed to cross the line between morally acceptable and feelings and desires that have been developed.

The female characters impose themselves over the male ones at all times: the husband of one of them is only a shadow and the other is a long time gone memory. For age-related reasons, the situation brings the women to an internal processes of recognition that allows them to weigh their roles as mothers, girlfriends and women who can love and feel desired.

Female desire ignited due to a sexual attraction and occasionally limited by maternal love, causes the seemingly perfect relationship to have periods of instability and discomfort: this leads them to rationalize and accept that the situation is temporary and that it must stop at some point.

It is the representation of a dangerous game that engages the four characters in a spiral that is very hard to leave, despite the attempts of each of the parties to fulfill their social roles. A film to enjoy, but also to ponder about.

Director: Anne Fontaine

Writers: Doris Lessing (novel), Christopher Hampton (screenplay)

Stars: Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel