In Mother’s Day or Dzien Matki, Nina, an ex-NATO spy must use her skills to save her son, who is unaware that she is his mother. The Polish action-thriller is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Nina (Agnieszka Grochowska) was forced to abandon her son, Max (Adrian Delikta), years ago to protect them both from dangerous enemies. Nina, herself, was pronounced dead, while Max believes his parents died in a car accident.
Despite this, Nina continues to look over her son from a distance, making sure he never spots her. She also constantly stalks him on social media.
One day, she is shocked to find through his social media post that Max is missing. She asks help from Igor (Dariusz Chojnacki), her former colleague, to track him down.
Nina soon realises that her past has caught up to her and the son of someone she killed in the past is looking for revenge.
Will she be able to save Max? And will he realise that she is actually his mother?
Performances
Grochowska and Delikta are the only ones who impress. They try their utmost to make Nina and Max’s relationship feel genuine, even when the script lets them down.
Positives
The camera work in the action sequences is exquisite. As Nina fights off a horde of goons, the choreography is compelling and the constant zooming of the camera makes the fights even better.
The film isn’t stretched needlessly and the runtime is adequate to never make you feel that it’s dragging.
Negatives
Despite the promise of a film that explores the complicated relationship of a mother and son, Mother’s Day never executes this successfully.
Nina and Max do not understand each other with nuance and it all feels too forced and rushed, especially towards the end. There was a lot of potential with this aspect of the narrative but never fulfilled.
As smooth as the fight sequences are, they have absolutely far-fetched elements as well. At one point, Nina stabs a goon with carrots.
The villains, especially Volta, are extremely exaggerated and hard to take seriously.
The conclusion is unsatisfactory and the final fight isn’t even shown properly. Nina just always seems to come out safely, sometimes without any explanation.
Verdict
Mother’s Day is just another average action-thriller that promises to be more but never quite delivers.
Mother's Day
Director: Mateusz Rakowicz
Date Created: 2023-05-24 17:41
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