My wife and I enjoyed this stark picture of one mother's struggles to be the "contemporary" mom. Many will/do not like this movie, maybe because it hurts to admit that the lead couple in fact mirrors (in a Picasso-ish way) a lot of us parents these days. Despite the title, Motherhood is not trying to be a "universal portrait," but rather a particularized snapshot that might show broad themes. The characters are essentially caring, "liberal," broad-minded people trying to squeeze all of their ideals into what is necessarily an extremely limiting and oftentimes frustrating enterprise for most human beings -- parenthood. If you live in a big, popular, cosmopolitan city -- for the sake of the culture, diversity and tight-knit neighborliness -- then parking will be a problem. If you submit to your child's wish to have a "theme" birthday -- then you might be harried with providing that, in said city, particularly if you have sneaking suspicion that it's overkill anyway . If you want to be writers, pursuing a life of the mind -- well, that may not neatly coincide with making the kids' breakfast every morning and consistently attending their school functions. The movie simply presents this conundrum -- a picture of the humanity-loving folks among us who turn out to act quite frazzled and nasty when mugged by Reality -- all without judging. Yes, the characters have "bitten off more than they can chew," but haven't so many of us done the same, at least sometimes in some areas of life? It may be dispiriting to watch, but it's real.The message of the movie seems to be that parenthood (particular motherhood) demands sacrifices that some of us make less easily than others -- but that everyone is indeed trying their best. I found Anthony Edwards' husband character quite relatable -- a wee bit unaware, but absolutely loving and supportive in the ways he does understand. This couple (again, like many others) seem almost too similar to one another, thus lacking the balance necessary to make those "ideal" families flow so swimmingly. The living room dance-scene with the stranger almost broke my heart. How many parents have pined over the loss of what they thought was their individuality -- but then also felt guilty and selfish for even thinking that? I could go on...Suffice it to say that Motherhood's rambling unrealism (a kind of Impressionism) calls up some uncomfortable realities of our post-feminist life; it gets under the skin, and cuts a bit close to the bone -- apparently too close for some folks' comfort.

I enjoyed the movie..If you aren't a parent then it will not make any sense to you. After watching the movie I sat and thought how hard my wife works, so I took her out to dinner that night. Kudos to you hard working mothers that get it. I prefer not to dissect a movie, it may have been all over the board, in regards to a plot, but I live in California and thought, wow is parking that bad where they live?I may not be a professional movie critic and sit on my butt all day long, but I'm a hard 60+ hour working dude that enjoys a couch, remote and a TV and I'm saying that I like the movie.

My wife and I rented this the other night from the movie machine at Publix. I really had no interest in seeing it, but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. I like Uma Thurman, and always found her sexy, sagging boobs and all. She seems like a competent enough actress, but she definitely has had the lions share of bombs, going back to Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Gattaca, etc.In this movie, like billions before, it is set in Manhattan, which I am really quite sick of. The first few minutes of the film, in which we see Uma shambling around a shabby apartment, seemed kind of creepy, like a PSA for depression. The film is very uneven and can't be called a comedy, and really didn't seem like a drama or love story. If anything, it shows the average New Yorker as quite annoying and unlikable. Uma's character whines about not having time to do anything, even though she does not have a job and creates extra work for herself, like giving her elderly neighbor orange juice. She writes meaningless Blogs, Carrie Bradshaw- style, in the "little slices of free time" she has. She runs around like a crazy person, trying to prepare for her daughter's birthday, obsessing bizarrely over the fact that the day is the "last day my daughter will be 5". WTF was that all about? Also, why does she wait until the last minute to prepare for the party? She seems to want to be a victim, to be able to complain incessantly about the "hardships of being a mother". Like other posters said, having children is a choice (usually). Nobody forced her to have two kids, and a dog she doesn't clean up after!I am sick of so many unoriginal movies about parenthood. Why doesn't Hollywood do something original (fat chance) and actually portray a couple that cannot have kids? The fact that this movie flopped so badly is a good indication that people are sick of this type of movie. I will give this movie a little bit of credit for having the couple not be rich and I liked the Pylon song Uma and the delivery guy danced to.

This movie depicted the difficulties that a mother goes through when looking after 2 young children with a lack a help from her husband and the everyday stresses of city life.What i found most annoying about this movie was that the character, well at least it seemed, created most of her 'Problems' unnecessarily. For example she took a bicycle shopping, and struggled with all the shopping bags. Why not take the bus?The music in the movie did nothing to enhance the feeling the director was trying to portray. Instead the music hindered this. I feel a better album of music could have been chosen for emotive effect.I do no recommend this movie and feel somewhat let down by the leading actress. She was much better in kill bill one and two.