I Love My Mum Review

I Love My Mum is the second feature-length film from Camelot Films. This comedy had a bigger budget but was problematic on a writing level.

Ron and Oleg (Tommy French and Kierston Wareing) are mother and son who have an incredibly dysfunctional relationship. After one argument too many the pair end up crashing into a shipping container and being shipped off to Morocco. They end up stuck in another country and must find a way back to England without money or passports.

I Love My Mum is a road movie in the vein of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles where two characters with different personalities have to travel together with the obvious twist being the familial relationship. It was a shame that I hated them so much.

Oleg was a selfish and self-centred character – and that was the point of her – she was meant to irritate. But she was a horrible excuse for a human being who took advantage of her son for years. She had done reprehensive things over the years and Ron should have ditched her in Morocco. Ron wasn’t much better – he was annoyingly whiny and did some dick moves during the course of the film. They were awful to be with.

The unlikeable characters would have been forgivable if the film was funny. Sadly it doesn’t deliver enough on this level. There were some decent jokes sprinkled during the running time but these were too few and far between. Some of my favourites were one involving the contents of the container and a fire.

I Love My Mum was clearly meant to be an energetic comedy of errors but the set pieces did not have enough zip to them and the film often felt repetitive. The same jokes were done over and over again – like the bickering in the car and Oleg’s promiscuity embarrassing her son. Despite having a run time of that less than 90 minutes I Love My Mum was dragged out. An example of this was when Ron accidentally becomes a taxi driver for a day.

Writer/director Alberto Sciamma had an estimated $2 million budget and it showed. The film was shot on local in Morocco, Italy, and Spain and there were set pieces like when the car reverses out of the shipping containing. The filmmakers and crew wanted to get their money’s worth with that shot and filmed it in slow-motion. The cinematography had a polish to it that made it look more expensive than it really is. There are plenty of low-budget British films that have flat camera work and look cheap.

I Love My Mum does have a good cast. Wareing is a recognisable actress in the UK – she has worked with directors like Andrea Arnold and Ken Loach and appeared in many big shows. Despite her character being so irredeemable Wareing was really good at playing the role. French spoke with a thick East London accent which made him sound a bit like Danny Dyer. It was assuming that former footballer Frank Leboeuf appeared in the film – he is clearly trying to expand his filmography.

I Love My Mum is a sadly a waste of its talent because of its poor screenplay and lack of humour.