WiseRatFlames An unexpected masterpiece

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

palofsophie Read the other reviews if interested in plot. The persons involved in creating this film may have had great motivation. The time & talents of Swank & Bletheyn are wasted. The dialogue is lame :"Is you husband cute? I think so." Who says stuff like that?The relationships seem false. The scenes with medical personnel are laughable. The scenery is interesting. I could not watch the entire film- it was aggravating.

kosmasp If people say and tell you this is inspiring, they are not wrong. Based on real events, this is really gripping and without knowing where this was heading (hadn't read anything about it, before I watched it), I really was surprised after about 30 minutes into the film. After that it was kind of obvious where it would go, but the acting and the telling of the story is really good.Not to mention the central performances. Even if towards the end you get a bit of a "cliche" speech, you'd have to have a heart of stone, not to be touched by it at all. You could also argue about the husband and what he decides to do and how things get "solved", but after all that happened, it seems to be a suiting ending to it all

liquid_sunset820 Something tells me that if you are a middle-upper class white woman in her 30s to 60s, you will find this movie spell binding, informative, and touching.I am none of those demographics, and saw the movie as typical "Africa is a country that needs our help" plea.I need to offer no spoilers; the movie, was every bit unsurprising and clichéd as anticipated. Hilary Swank plays an nonredeemable negligent mother named Mary, who, stupidly takes her son to South Africa without doing...perhaps a quick google search? The Black Mambazo joke, the "does he have the flu," the all around idiocy on her character's part is NOT what any "regular" mother would do, and hence her endless boo-hooing and selfish behavior leaves no empathy. I'm supposed to give her a pulitzer because she ends up losing her son to a disease that kills people on a good portion of the African Continent??? Martha, is only mildly more redeeming. Whether I should feel sympathy for her, I don't know. She's just a whiny ole British woman with the voice of a stereotypical whiny old British woman. behaving like a whiny old British woman. Yeah her son was stupid himself, being such a wonderful white person giving away his medicine (oh how I wish we were all like that!), like everyone in this movie, he ended up dying trying to help those "poor Africans." He just wanted to take pictures!! Poor baby! The strength they find in each other, is giving themselves more credit than they deserve. They "find strength" also helping these destitute, helpless people, who seem to just always be helpless and destitute.Talk about Naivete. Apparently the only thing white people seem to be portrayed as in this movie are "unsung heroes of the African cause." That apparently, only people listen to nicely dressed white people when it comes to the plight of issues on the African Continent. If, you really think you "learned something" about Malaria, you have no clue. Its a disease that isn't in your country because, well, you aren't disenfranchised or poor. Its really that simple, and they don't acknowledge that in the least. You really think, the governments don't know? You really think its a matter of knowledge? It isn't. Its people who can't afford the bare necessities, because of a long trend of being disenfranchised and indebted, then ignored.And then she has the nerve to pretend she knows what the natives were going through?? Um, honey, you live in a pretty house in a pretty suburb, eat three meals a day, and if ish hits the fan, you get on a plane and leave. You have a giant memorial for your son, filled with what looked like every extra from every movie ever, the little whiny girl from X Factor, and spiffy new LBDs. And YOU know what someone who is living on a $1 a day is going through????? You know, I will re neg on my glaring Character reference. Hilary Swank DID play a very GOOD annoying, ungrateful mother. She had me convinced.

ianlouisiana Mr Richard Curtis is a very nice man.I say that in the full knowledge that I have never met him although I saw him one evening last year in a restaurant in Walberswick with his daughter looking like someone who desperately does not want to be recognised. He has written "Mary and Martha" for "Red Nose Day",which he instigated many years ago and which has made millions for Good Causes all round the world. It concerns malaria which apparently kills half a million children every year,an appalling statistic. Equally appalling is the alleged indifference of the so - called Developed World until two nice middle class white children are killed,and slowly,ever - so - slowly,it sits up and takes notice of this unacceptable state of affairs.That is the gist of Mr Curtis's film. It features Miss B.Blethyn - one of the least "actressy" of English actresses and Miss H.Swank,the sort of woman you would like beside you in a foxhole facing The Hun(no offence). Both have lost their sons to malaria - one of the more easily (and cheaply) preventable of the many diseases that curse Africa. These two formidable women team up and present evidence to a Senate Appropriations Committee in order to draw more attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of African children. That - in essence - is "Mary and Martha".An achingly sincere portrait of loss and the need to make some sense out of the apparently senseless. That it fails to tell the whole story makes it even more tragic. Aid from the West is often looked upon(not by those who need it,mind you)as a continuation of Colonialism by other means and opposed on Political Grounds. Several people I know who have been to Africa working for N.G.O.s have found themselves marginalised and actually obstructed by officials with their own agenda. I fear it is not quite the "Rainbow Nation" Mr Mandela visualised and Mr Curtis has presented. Having said that,"Mary and Martha" is a considerable achievement that he should be proud of and if I ever bump into him in Walberswick again I hope he won't mind if I tell him so.