Mother, Couch

I'm not sure what's going on in this film, but it does grip you because the characters are well-defined and the acting is terrific.

From start to finish, it’s an original, wholly unpredictable experience. It’s also, by turns, gripping, provocative, head-scratching and disturbing, and is likely to divide viewers with its dreamlike ambitions and metaphorical musings.

Mother, Couch captures something real about family and aging, but it remains unsatisfactory.

Burstyn’s character... is so utterly disagreeable that viewing the picture is a mostly anxious experience with not much of a reward at the end, which shifts to magic realist mode for lack of anywhere better to go.

I’m sure someone will find solace in a film attempting to emulate the angst that occurs when you have unresolved issues with your terrible parents. But “Mother, Couch” seems just as unresolved and just as terrible.

Other than a sort of wistful quirkiness, it’s not clear what Mother, Couch gains by skewing away from a more straightforward, streamlined family drama.

Niclas Larsson’s first feature, after several shorts, isn’t a complete misfire, but it’s mainly for devoted Ewan McGregor fans, since none of the other characters register as strongly—not even the mother on the couch.

Larsson clings to sublime moments of personal strife, associating them with contemporary surrealism, in this fractured and imperfect, but always stimulating, film. [Full review in Spanish]

An absurdist, existential exercise on grief and regret, Mother, Couch benefits from an exemplary cast in this wearying, nightmarish scenario of familial dysfunction.

I don't know if it all comes together, but everyone is so entrancing that you just want to keep watching to see what the hell is going to happen next.