Educational Media Reviews Online

Mother, Couch, is a feature-length, narrative film written and directed by Niclas Larsson, starring Ewan McGregor. The dramedy's primary conflict centers on an elderly mother, played by Ellen Burnstyn, who refuses to leave a couch in an outdated furniture store.

With little help from his older siblings (Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle), David (McGregor) works exhaustively to convince their mother to leave the bizarre furniture store, while patiently tending to her confusing demands. The mother is bitter, admitting hurtful secrets. His siblings are detached and uncaring. In an effort to temporarily appease her, David accepts an odd offer from an alluring store clerk inviting him and his mother to spend the night. As if in a dream, David wanders the store, confused and disoriented, finding himself in the middle of conversations and abruptly negotiating the price of the couch with an aggressive store manager.

As the film progresses, it becomes clear that it is a clever metaphor that captures the stressful experience of adult children caring for an aging parent. The store and its staff can be seen as representations of hospitals and senior care facilities. The mother’s stubborn and odd behavior mirror anger and aggression symptoms sometimes exhibited by people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This imagery draws attention to the conflict that often occurs in healthcare settings and funeral homes between their missions to provide care and cold, for-profit business objectives. Throughout the film, tension builds as David’s relationship with his wife and children become strained. Though comedic at times, Mother, Couch skillfully highlights the sobering experience of grieving a parent confronting the end of their life and the pressure senior caregiving places on adult children who desire to fulfill their many familial roles.

Mother, Couch is highly recommended for adult audiences and would be ideal for those interested in film representations of caregiving, aging, dementia, Alzheimer’s, dysfunctional family dynamics, and practices of senior care facilities and funeral homes.

Awards:
Best Nordic Film 2024 Göteborg Film Festival

Published and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Anyone can use these reviews, so long as they comply with the terms of the license.