Yes, it's a bad movie. But it's not terrible. In a way, it *profits* from the negative reviews--you see the film and anticipate a trainwreck. And it's just a car wreck, so you're pleasantly surprised.
A grand tradition of storytelling involves children attempting to piece together the truth from various fragments that adults provide. The main text is Henry James's "What Maisie Knew" (with a strong film adaptation featuring Julianne Moore). You also have the Culkin character in "You Can Count on Me." You have Maile Meloy's excellent story "Red From Green." Mona Simpson's "Casebook" belongs in this discussion. Plus Jesse Eisenberg's galvanizing performance in "The Squid and the Whale."
"Other Mommy" features a little girl--a young actor asked to do a bit too much. As others have noted, it's hard to spend so much time with a child actor when you know Jessica Chastain and Arian Moayed are in the wings. You begin to ask, silently, "Couldn't I spend this time with Arian Moayed?"
The little girl understands that something is "off" within her parents' marriage. Grandma skipped the wedding--"I couldn't attend when I didn't approve." Dad gives a weird, meandering speech at an anniversary dinner: "There are so many other paths we could have chosen, and I often think about those paths." Mom comes home from "work," and her smell is different. Why would her "scent" disappear after a low-stakes day in an office?
The answers aren't shocking, but they pack in more "nuance" than the answers you'd get from many other Hollywood movies. I can see why Chastain picked the script--it's a chance to play someone who is (plausibly) messy. This sort of chance is not to be taken for granted.
If you had to choose this or the Facebook movie, I'd recommend "Other Mommy." In all ways, "Other Mommy" is a clunkier movie--but at least it's not the Hollywood equivalent of a reheated Amazon "Fresh" burrito. It takes some risks.
P.S. Additionally, the TV series "Freaks and Geeks" is, at times, in "conversation" with "What Maisie Knew." You could probably write a long essay on Mike White's artistic connection with Henry James.
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