there's more here than you might comfortably care to to know about any mother, but The Mother (2003), richly deserves her telling. director Roger Michell's work is fascinating to observe (Enduring Love, Notting Hill) and frequently distinctive for it's deadly brutal human accuracy (Amanda Peet's brief restaurant scene in Changing Lanes deserves a special award for sheer whallop alone). abreast of co-star Daniel Craig, british actress Anne Reid (a tour de fource performance ) embodies a bleached - yet lingering - beauty as she undertakes the sobering journey of the title character, an examination of societal and family bounds, self-perception and sexual passion reclaimed. this is a wise, masterful film layered in rich, natural light and sounds, often as beautiful as it is excruciating.