I Killed my Mother / J’ ai tue ma me’re (Xavier Dolan, 2009): Canada

Reviewed by Danae Thomas. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Metro 4 Theater.

This intense, biography/drama film has strong, struggling, characters that deal with intense real life issues. It’s because of these strong characters that keep the story progressing forward and maintaining the audience’s attention. The cinematography and mise-en-scene are also extraordinary which make this film look like an alluring piece of work. I found myself wanting to see what happens next to these characters throughout the film and becoming involved in their emotional struggles living together as mother and son. I was always wondering if their relationship as mother and son would fall apart and never reconnect or would eventually become a stronger bond.

Hubert Minel played by Xavier Dolan, who directed and wrote the screenplay for this film is a young sixteen year old boy who lives at home with his mother and has serious problems getting along with her as they are very different people. Hubert’s personality suddenly changes and he starts cleaning the house for her and prepares meals. His mother wonders why her son is more helpful and polite. When she runs into a complete stranger she finds out a big secret about her son and becomes saddened but hurt at the same time that he never told her. Eventually the mother sends Hubert off to a boarding school which he is not happy about and they continue to struggle with their relationship as mother and son throughout the film.

The themes involve: isolation, being a single women, and the feeling of being different from others. Hubert’s mother is displayed on camera as being an isolated woman and we can see this by how mostly every shot she’s by herself; when she’s not with Hubert or her friend, she’s never with another man. Hubert’s mother is single, her friend is single, and Hubert’s female teacher seems to be single. Throughout the film Hubert realizes how different he is from the other kids that go to his school and wonders why he can’t have the same interests as they do. Another theme is the world between love and hate as Hubert struggles to juggle these two worlds with his mother. There are moments when he loves his mother and many other periods where he hates her and can’t be around her.

The cinematography is amazing as it captures the emotions of Hubert and his mother by: having close ups of their emotional facial expressions and by having behind the camera narration scenes done by Hubert in black and white which portray his personal feelings about his mother. When the camera does close ups of Hubert’s face, it’s difficult not to read the emotion he’s feeling because we can see the anger in his eyes and the intensity rises as the audience becomes aware of such an effective affection.

This film is definitely worth your time if you enjoy severe, drama films, where there are emotional issues between a family and you can become engrossed with the characters.