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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Kierston Wareing, Tommy French, Frank Leboeuf
Director: Alberto Sciamma
Running Time: 86 mins
I Love My Mum is a British film about a quarreling mother and son from Tilbury who accidentally end up in a shipping container destined for Morocco. Upon landing in Africa without a penny and still wearing their pyjamas, they must overcome their feuds to make it back to England, on a journey that will change their lives.
This movie is fantastically stupid. It’s a big, crazy road trip with a really ridiculous story, preposterous hijinks and two mad central characters. And yet, while it may seem like a recipe for a shrill and unbearable watch at times, the film’s outlandish nature is actually what makes it so surprisingly charming, and really quite funny throughout.
Admittedly, I Love My Mum is a movie that requires a high tolerance level to genuinely enjoy. I mention that it might not be the shrill and unbearable watch that you may expect at first, but the reality is that’s only the case if you really go with its mad humour and even more ludicrous story.
After the pair land in Morocco in their pyjamas, and with their mother-son relationship at an all-time low, the whole adventure spirals into pure ridiculousness. Coupled with the fact that the two keep bickering all the way through the movie, I Love My Mum is certain to prove insufferable for anybody who can’t stand the first twenty minutes or so.
That being said, if you sit back and watch the car crash of a mother-son relationship disintegrate before your eyes in the midst of a film that seems like more of an excuse for the actors to get a free holiday to the Mediterranean than anything else, then there really is something to be enjoyed about this film.
Of course, I Love My Mum is no masterpiece. But in between the toilet humour and often hateful characters that pop up on screen throughout, the movie manages to balance a raucous brand of road trip comedy with moments of genuinely heartfelt and touching drama, all of which makes it even more infectiously enjoyable if it’s managed to spark a smile from you at any point in the opening stages.
The film does feature some terrible comedy tropes (the final scene in particular), while the majority of the story is as predictable as they come. As a result, to enjoy this movie, you really have to sit back and turn your brain off, embracing the pure idiocy of everything that unfolds on screen, and be sucked into the reality of the on-screen relationship.
All of this may make I Love My Mum to sound like a so-bad-it’s-good kind of a movie, but I don’t think that’s the case. One of the main reasons for that is because, while it seems so idiotic throughout on screen, that’s very clearly the intention from the beginning of the movie, and it’s something that’s portrayed brilliantly throughout.
In the lead roles, Kierston Wareing and Tommy French are hugely convincing as a quarrelling mother and son with total disregard for everybody they cross in their path. They may not be the most likable heroes to follow on a trip all the way back up to England from Morocco, but there’s no doubting that the actors deliver their roles in the most effective and as such irritating way possible.
I Love My Mum really is a Marmite of a film. You’ll either despise every minute of it; its loud, screechy and moronic brand of humour and storytelling getting on your nerves throughout, or you’ll love it; thanks to its convincing performances, ludicrous premise and ridiculous comedy. With strengths and weaknesses peppered right the way through, it’s just one of those movies that will play to the tastes of some, and not those of others. So, that’s why I’m giving it a 7.1 overall.
