Why do movies always have to bash the ‘burbs?

Mothers’ Instinct is a psychological thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain and it is one of those over-ripe, camp melodramas that, back in the day, would have almost certainly starred Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Or Tippi Hedren and Kim Novak, if we are going to be Hitchcockian about it. Either way, it’s a face-off between two world-class actresses and while it throws plausibility to the winds at the end, it is a delicious ride. And I’ve saved the best news for last: it’s all done and dusted in 95 minutes. Not an ounce of fat here.

It is directed by Benoît Delhomme and is a remake of Olivier Masset-Depasse’s 2018 French-language film which, in turn, is an adaptation of the novel by Barbara Abel. Set in the 1960s, Chastain and Hathaway play Alice and Céline, neighbours in an American suburb who have, over the years, become best friends while their eight-year-old sons, Theo (Eamon Patrick O’Connell) and Max (Baylen D. Bielitz), have grown up together like brothers. While Alice might have some reservations about giving up everything to become a wife and mother – she used to be a journalist; it is always a journalist, never a butcher – life seems picture perfect. The clapboard houses are beautiful and airy, the gardens are meticulous, gleaming turquoise cars are parked in the driveways and so on, you know the drill. And you know, too, that something bad is about to happen – if only because cinema always has it in for the ’burbs.

The bad thing happens almost immediately and because it’s been freely mentioned elsewhere and is the starting point of the narrative, I’ll tell you what it is: Max falls from the balcony of his house and dies. Alice sees it all unfold from her back garden and races to save him but doesn’t make it in time.