
Starring: Linda Caridi, Maria Morevan, Andrea Tagliaferri
Director: Karole Di Tomasso
Country: Italy
Italian pregnancy Drama Mom + Mom is out now in the UK. Following lesbian couple Karole (Caridi) and Ali (Morevan) - which, probably not coincidentally, are the names of the director and her wife - we see their trials and tribulations as they attempt to become pregnant. Living on minimal funds but in desperate need of a sperm donor, they are forced to keep Andrea (Tagliaferri) around, Ali’s ex-boyfriend, who sleeps on their couch and sponges off them as much as he can.
The two leads are whimsical and doe-eyed, clumsily bumbling their way through their attempts to have a baby. They are desperately in love – and the chemistry between the actresses is palpable – but there are times when you feel like sitting them down and making a coherent plan for them, because they seem wholly incapable of doing it themselves.
There are times when it aims for laugh-out-loud comedy – a sequence with a hysterical Korean tourist almost makes you giggle – but otherwise it feels the humour is being lost in translation. They complain about Andrea yet keep him around, moan about money but seem inept in their ability to earn it and the whole irritating saga is played out through vignettes that need more explanation than they have. Why can’t Karole and her parents speak the same language? At times, it’s baffling.
Dream sequences add to the film’s quirky style, but they pepper the story with insignificant musings about inconsequential nonsense. This is a slight film with little to say and an assumption that we’ll find incompetence endearing. That’s decidedly not the case.
OUT NOW ON DVD AND ON DEMAND, RELEASED BY TLA RELEASING.