Surprisingly written by the two men behind The Hangover (2009), Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, and directed by them, Bad Moms is a little satirical, a little ironic, a tiny bit feminist and mostly like a high school chick flick set around mothers of two.
This is a great space to explore – over-stretched mothers managing lives, homes, extra-curricular activities, stressed children and unappreciated husbands. What if these women revolt and decide to throw off their good mom masks to be, well, bad moms? According to Moore and Lucas, the definition of being a bad mom is getting drunk, hooking up with men, waking up too late to make breakfast or pack lunch for the kids and skipping work.
The story pivots around Amy (Mila Kunis), a 32-year-old working mother who juggles lunch boxes with school projects and a marketing job with Parent Teacher Association meetings. Amy is the oldest employee at a hip coffee company where the death of Jon Snow on the Game of Thrones show was cause enough for the entire office to take two weeks off to mourn.
Amy’s always running late but never deflated, and her hair is always perfect. However she loses her equilibrium when she catches her under-achieving (and underwhelming) husband having an online affair. The sad part is that he’s hardly worth fighting for, so you pretty much know that reconciliation is off the table.
Unable to cope with the added pressure of single parenting, Amy teams up with new friends and fellow struggling moms. Kiki (Kristen Bell) and Carla (Kathryn Hahn) side with Amy, throwing off all pretences and embracing their bad mom sides. This sets Amy on a direct collision course with the dictatorial PTA head Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) and her clique of soccer moms (Jada Pinkett Smith and Annie Mumolo). A hunky Hispanic widower is thrown for some eye candy, the only male character with any texture.
Satire and social comment are slipped in with obsessions with allergies, the different kind of groups (Asian moms, tiger moms, lesbian moms), the pressure on children and , and how full-time moms frown upon working mothers. Adding more confusion to the intent, the principal actors are seen cozily sharing a couch with their respective mothers during the end credits, sharing anecdotes about their relationships.
The screenwriters Lucas and Moore fare better than the directors Scott and Moore. Mila Kunis’s repeated smothering of her two children and cooing “I love you” in the face of every crisis demonstrates the limitations of both the actor and the screenplay. Besides the innumerable sexual references (beeped out profanities and mentions of male and female genitalia), boozing and a smattering of laughs, the film doesn’t push the envelope far enough. No matter how often the moms tell you their children are a joy and how much they love them, they seem to love cheap Chardonnay and single hot Hispanic men more.
On the upside, the peppy soundtrack includes Shut up and dance by Walk the Moon, I want to know what love is by Foreigner and Cake by the ocean by DNCE.
