Mothers’ Instinct

Even in its opening scenes, hints of hostility and discontent linger beneath the idyllic surface of Mothers’ Instinct, a twisty psychological thriller that proceeds to expose those fractures.

Yet despite a pair of committed lead performances, the film is not especially insightful in its portrait of 1960s suburban social malaise and gender politics, instead artificially ratcheting up the tension with melodramatic contrivances.

This remake of a 2018 Belgian thriller chronicles the deterioration of the relationship between housewives Celine (Anne Hathaway) and Alice (Jessica Chastain) during the aftermath of a tragic accident that tears both families apart.

The next-door neighbors are portrayed as inseparable before Celine’s son falls from a balcony and dies while she was inside vacuuming. Alice’s attempt to rescue him comes too late.

That leaves Celine and her husband (Josh Charles) childless while Alice’s precocious young son, Theo (Eamon O’Connell) struggles to mourn his classmate’s loss. Alice, who has a history of mental instability, tries to comfort both of them. “Everyone deals with tragedy in their own way,” reasons Alice’s husband (Anders Danielson Lie). “He’ll come around.”

As Celine bonds with Theo over their mutual sorrow, the shocking circumstances pull her apart from Alice, triggering a volley of paranoid accusations and a downward spiral of psychological trauma perhaps stemming more from an ego-driven desire to keep up appearances than any genuine empathy.

The directorial debut of acclaimed French cinematographer Benoit Delhomme (The Theory of Everything) is mildly unsettling and meticulous in its period detail.

Hathaway and Chastain each bring emotional depth to women burdened by guilt and grief. Obsessed with social climbing and lacking ways to express their marital dissatisfaction, much of their most vital communication comes via body language and facial expressions.

The screenplay — adapted from a novel by Belgian author Barbara Abel — generates some intriguing character dynamics, particularly in the way both mothers relate to Theo after the incident. However, we never get a sense of how close they were in the first place, outside of geographic proximity.

As it devolves into borderline camp, Mothers’ Instinct stretches credibility to the extent it squanders any meaningful moviegoer sympathy. Despite some effective character-driven moments, it never fulfills its lofty Hitchcockian ambitions.

Not rated, 94 minutes.