Mothers' Instinct has the kind of twisty, bonkers ending we love to see in a campy melodrama.
Academy Award winners Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain star in this adaptation of Barbara Abel's 2012 novel Behind the Hatred, where two mothers and neighbours see tensions escalating after a tragic accident.
In the movie, set in the 1960s, Alice (Chastain) witnesses the death of Céline's (Hathaway) young son, Max.
From her backyard, Alice sees Max dangerously trying to hang a birdhouse while standing on the balcony's railing, and runs into her neighbour's house to save him. She is too late, though, and the boy falls and dies. It's not her fault, but the guilt eats at her as Céline's life crumbles beneath her feet.
Soon, the women's close friendship turns sour as Céline obsesses over what went wrong, and Alice worries about the safety of her own son Theo, who was best friends with Max.
Now available to watch on Netflix UK, Mothers' Instinct's suburban paradise soon turns into an unsettling tale of paranoia and murder.
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Major spoilers ahead.
Mothers' Instinct ending explained
After a period of mourning away from her house, Céline comes back and she's keen on rekindling her relationship with Alice's family.
However, Alice is not too happy with Céline and her son Theo growing close. They seem to understand each other due to their shared loss, and soon Theo basically appoints the woman as his new best friend. He even invites her to his birthday party.
Alice is paranoid that Céline is trying to take revenge on her for not saving Max, or perhaps just steal her son as a replacement. Spoiler alert, she's not wrong!
Céline is indeed trying to remove all obstacles that separate her from becoming Theo's mother, and her masterplan starts to properly unfold at the disastrous birthday party.
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At the party, Theo's grandmother Jean, mother of Alice's husband Simon, suddenly dies of a heart attack after she failed to take her medication, as the autopsy reveals.
Alice thinks it's weird Grandma Jean would forget something she did on a daily basis, and suspects Céline might have replaced her heart medication with a different drug. Once again, she's not wrong!
Céline's next victim is her own husband Damian, who she murders and then stages the scene to make it look like a suicide.
Painting herself as a helpless widow one step away from doing something tragic, Simon takes pity on her and invites her to stay with them, to Alice's exasperation.
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For her coup de grâce, Céline uses chloroform to leave Alice and Simon unconscious in their beds, and then forces a gas leak that leads to a fire, where the couple die. She also uses chloroform on an already-asleep Theo before she removes him from the house, "saving" his life.
With Theo's parents and grandma dead, Céline is the only sensible choice as his guardian. In a court scene, we see a judge granting her custody of Alice's son, with the boy oblivious of the woman's sinister plan.
The movie ends with Céline and Theo walking on the beach, a moment that could be mistaken by a happy, healing ending if we didn't know what it took to get there.
How Mothers' Instinct changes the book's ending
Mothers' Instinct is an adaptation of Barbara Abel's 2012 novel Behind the Hatred, but there are plenty of differences between the two stories.
For example, Abel's story is set just outside of Paris in a more modern time, and the main characters' names are Laetitia and Tiphaine. This movie adaptation keeps the suburban setting, but changes the time period to take place in the 1960s. The action also moves from France to the United States.
One of the most notable changes comes at the ending, when it's revealed that the murderous plan was concocted by both Céline and her husband Damian. Their plan was always to frame Simon and Alice's deaths as suicide and gain custody of Theo.
The movie decides to remove Damian from the equation, turning the story into a one-woman murderous journey.
Mothers' Instinct is now available on Netflix UK.
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Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
