The Second Mother is a Brazilian film concerning a wealthy family, their live-in housekeeper, and the arrival of the housekeeper’s daughter, who throws the household into upheaval. If pushed, I’d say it’s about class and the female experience but, before you run for the hills, you should know it is socio-economic warfare beautifully written and it is socioeconomic warfare exquisitely performed and it is socioeconomic warfare undertaken with humour and heart, and if you’re still not sold, more fool you.
The housekeeper — who is also nanny, maid, gardener and dog-walker — is Val, as played by Regine Chase, who is dynamite; who engages in the first frame and then simply carries on doing so. She is a wonderfully warm presence, and has one of those strong-featured, supremely characterful, sublime faces as rarely seen in cinema, now cinema is practically wall-to-wall Jennifer Lawrences. (A face probably not seen since Peggy Mount.
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