Review

To say that French icon Isabelle Huppert likes to challenge herself - and the audience - is an understatement. The great actress/provocateur has come to specialize in tormented, troubled and wildly transgressive women and, just when you think she has gone as far as she can, she takes us even closer to the edge. Arguably more amazing is the number of filmmakers comfortable within Huppert's dangerous, sensual universe: would any modern director pass up the chance to work with her? Christophe Honoré knows just how to use her, and with Ma mère, his adaptation of Georges Bataille's posthumous novel, Huppert added yet another striking characterization to her singular gallery of screen women.

The movie is virtually an autopsy of the sexual duality of women as both lovers and mothers. Here, however, the two are daringly intertwined as Huppert embarks on a summer of depravity on the sun-kissed Canary Islands with her teenaged son, played by Christophe Honoré-regular Louis Garrel, Coming-of-age movies are a familiar film staple but there hasn't been one quite like Ma mère. At once sexually charged, romantic and frightening, this film takes a brave journey into dark, uncharted areas of the human soul, guided by one of the screen's great actresses. Better buckle up: it's going to be one bumpy ride, and memorably so.

 -- Joe Baltake