I saw this film purely by chance. It was shown very late, or more correctly very early one morning on television. I had woken up and was having trouble getting to sleep and this film came on.It deals with a subject covered many times elsewhere (it certainly isn't as good as Educating Rita, despite a couple of additional twists) and has a very predictable ending.Despite its very obvious shortcomings I did enjoy the film and this was thanks to the acting of some of its players rather than the story or the piece as a whole.I am a big fan of Sam Neil and have seen him in many different films including: Dead Calm; The Piano; Sirens; Children of the Revolution; Event Horizon; Bicentennial Man and the ubiquitous Jurassic Park. He was very good but he could have played this part with his eyes shut.Some of the acting was, in my opinion, dreadful Rose Byrne for example and some of the elusions were rather heavy handed (all the board woman in empty lives all dressed totally in white for example).However, two actors (who I hadn't, or don't remember, seen before) impressed me a lot Sinéad Cusackn as Frances (Frank) Kennedy, and especially Matthew Newton as her son David. He, in particular, was very convincing and I would like to see a lot more of him.

Just when I thought I knew where this whimsical Australian embarrassing mother comedy was taking me, it threw me a curve ball that stopped me laughing and started me feeling - a curious juxtaposition that possibly would have worked better had the film been played either funny or straight.There's plenty to enjoy along the way though: a performance from Sam Neill that proves what a good character actor he is, two of the best fun nuns I have seen on screen, some wonderful all too brief appearances from some waspish "ladies who lunch" and some fruity pantry explosions!Not one of Australia's best, but streets ahead of anywhere else's worst.

I can't see how a film of this quality only gets an average of 5.7 from IMDb voters. It's a classic Australian production that resembles recent efforts such as LOVE AND OTHER CATASTROPHES, THE SUGAR FACTORY, OCCASIONAL COARSE LANGUAGE, RUSSIAN DOLL, SAMPLE PEOPLE, THE SECRET LIFE OF US, LA SPAGNOLA, STRANGE PLANET, FRESH AIR, DUST OFF THE WINGS, DOING TIME FOR PATSY CLINE, etc..., as a 19-year-old uni student (Newton, in perhaps his best role yet, on par with CHANGI at least) with a bored, over-religious mother gets the shock of his life when she decides to enrol in the same course as him - and before you go thinking ANOTHER GOOFY MOVIE, it's not, there's some real substance here. Sure, it's a simplistic view of life in general and arts students in particular (but then they are rather simplistic under all that philosophical mumbo-jumbo aren't they?), and maybe the study of Sinead Cusack's character is a little muddled at times, but the film is bright, funny, and has some important messages. The principle cast is terrific: Cusack and Newton are wonderful, and Rose Byrne (see her also in THE GODDESS OF 1967) is so underrated it's not funny. She's a beautiful, fresh, confident actor who deserves every accolade she receives. I gave MY MOTHER FRANK 8/10.

Not particularly original or engaging. About half an hour in I'd written the ending in my head. The only surprise I got was that it was worse and more cliched than I'd imagined.The lead actors are not particularly likeable either. That makes our journey through their world a hard slog.