PLOT SUMMARY: Kate goes to extreme lengths to protect her daughter when intruders break into her home.
It is said that a mother will do whatever it takes to protect her child. Her love for her child is unconditional so her desire to protect is also intense.
If she senses her child is in danger, she will push herself to the limits to protect them. Kind of like cats when they feel their kittens are being watched or someone may try to harm them. The glare they will give you...that must be how the phrase "If looks can kill" must be coined.
MOTHERLY Movie Plot
Kate is playing hide and seek with her daughter Beth and her friend Courteney. An incident occurs which shocks Kate.
Some time has passed and Kate is living in a remote place with Beth. It is Beth's birthday and she practically begs to play outside. Kate has reservations about it but reluctantly agrees.
While Beth is playing, Kate is writing what appears to be a memoir. She thinks back to the day when Courtenay was dropped off by her mother Mary. Kate also joins in on playing hide and seek. When she goes upstairs to search for the girls, the closet door is open and Courteney is laying on the floor, a pool of blood under her. She then types her husband is the killer and then slams her laptop shut.
She finally decides to pay attention to her daughter and finds she is no longer outside. She goes out in search of her and enters a barn where Beth has readied a surprise with a pitchfork. Kate has a breakdown but most of it is relief. Her reaction makes more sense when the climax comes up.
Kate ushers Beth inside the house but realizes the door is ajar. She tells Beth to stay in the living room while she checks the whole house but Beth comes behind her jumpy mother because its fun to scare people. There's a secret entrance to the basement in a closet that Beth uses and which she duly informs her mother.
Kate gets pissed off her daughter is being disobedient and marches her back to the living room. She searches the house again but doesn't find any intruder.
She relaxes and then celebrates Beth's birthday. Beth isn't too keen and the cake is mostly frosting so no excitement there either. Beth asks if she can play on her mother's phone at least but she says nope to that. So Beth sulks and sulks.
Just then a car appears and Kate gets anxious again. Beth is interested to have just anybody come at this point to save her from boredom. But when she sees its just Hal, she groans again.
Hal is a cop, and apparently Kate and Beth and in the witness protection program. He comes over with groceries for Kate and pretends to have forgotten its Beth's birthday only to give her a doll.
Beth frowns when she sees it and comments on how she's nine years old and that means she's too old to play with dolls now. Kids these days...Nine year olds don't like dolls anymore? They only like to play on phones? Turns out Beth likes to play other games as well but that is revealed much later.
Kate insists Beth says thanks and she does. Then she proceeds to open the box and Hal smirks thinking Beth wanted to play with dolls but was pretending to act all cool. Beth plays with the doll's legs and tries to pull it apart before tossing it aside.
Hal takes Kate outside to inform her that her husband killed himself in prison. He left behind a note saying he understood why Kate did what she did and that he loved Beth. Hal makes a remark about her husband's death and says good riddance. Kate replies by having a breakdown much to his mortification.
He's later served a slice of the disappointing cake and Beth is taken upstairs to sleep. As Kate leaves, the door next to her bedroom opens a bit. Someone is in the house after all.
Downstairs, Kate tries to seduce Hal so that he could stay the night as she doesn't want to be alone. He rejects her and tells her his wife already suspects him. Kate throws him out of the house and proceeds to mope. As soon as Hal is out of the driveway, the lights go off.
Kate begins searching for her phone and calls out to Beth if she has taken it. Beth has taken it and is playing a game but she yells back that nope she doesn't have it. Kate roams around the house and then hearing a noise asks Beth if she has taken the cake knife. Beth gets shocked. How could her mother insinuate that she took the knife?
But of course Kate suspects her daughter of taking and hiding knives...more foreshadowing.
Kate then sees a shadow of a person in a jacket and then before she can react, is knocked out by another intruder behind her.
Kate awakens to find herself tied to a chair and face to face with Mary and Lewis, Courteney's parents. They tell her they know what she did. Mary tells Lewis to take away Beth to the house while she tells Kate she knows she killed Courteney and not her husband.
Kate denies the accusation and Mary takes out a phone and sets it up to record. Kate tells Mary she knows she was having an affair with her husband
and that her husband is now dead. Mary is shocked. But she pushes ahead and tries Kate to confess she was the killer.
When Kate keeps denying it Mary switches off the phone and removes pliers. She takes Kate's hand and proceeds to remove her fingernail.
Meanwhile Lewis is being nice to Beth much to her surprise. He tells her she reminds him of her daughter. Beth isn't emotionally taken by his words. She gives him a swift kick to his groin. She runs to hide under the bed and uses the phone to call Hal. Lewis pulls her out and freaks out when he sees who she called.
Lewis goes to complain to Mary and Kate freaks out about the whereabouts of her daughter. Mary decides to go look for Beth while Lewis stays with Kate.
Mary finds Beth and tells her she can confide in her. She also tells Beth that her father is dead. Beth tells her that her mother is a monster and doesn't let her do anything.
Meanwhile Hal misses the call from Kate's phone and then gets a call from his wife who tells him she knows about his affair with Kate. He tries to convince her but she tells him he needs to sleep elsewhere tonight. Hal decides that okay, if his wife thinks he's having an affair then so be it. He decides to go back to Kate's house.
When Mary and Lewis see Hal approach they force Kate to get rid of him. She tells Hal he cannot spend the night with her and then gives him a hint about Beth and her absolutely adoring his doll gift.
Hal knows Beth hated it so he understands the hint, thankfully. He backs away, gets in his car, contemplates what to do and then drives away.
Kate is taken back to the shed while Mary tries to show sympathy to Beth.
Hal calls for backup and when he learns it will take an hour to get to the house, he decides to be a hero. He goes back to the house and takes out a gun.
Lewis keeps pushing Kate to confess she is the killer. Realizing she's out of options, she lets Lewis film her confession that it wasn't her husband but her that killed Courteney. Lewis is by no means a cold hearted killer and so has a mini breakdown.
Hal finally comes in with his gun ready. Kate tells him to shoot Lewis, but Lewis tells Hal he has Kate's confession on video. As he's removing the phone from his jacket, Kate instigates Hal into shooting Lewis. Hal believes her and is shocked when he sees Lewis only had a phone in his hand. Curious, he tries to get to the phone but Kate kills him.
Mary has by now heard the gunshots. She wonders what to do when Beth tells her she knows where they can hide. Of course Kate remembers where her daughter's hiding spot was because it was shown in the first half of the movie. Beth, for some reason had told her mother whom she disliked where her hiding spot was because it was going to come to play in the movie.
MOTHERLY Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Kate goes down the stairs and is attacked by Mary who then goes to the barn to see her husband and Hal laying dead. Just then Beth comes running towards her with a pitchfork. Surprise!
Yes, it was Beth all along. She was the killer. The major hint given in the movie was when she tried to tear off the doll's leg. How cruel! Any girl who does that is supposed to be a psychopath?
Anyway, Kate yells at Beth and told her she promised she wouldn't kill again. So that time when Kate was surprised by Beth? That had been pure relief that her daughter hadn't stabbed her. Of course this time, Beth decides she wants to kill Kate after all.
Mary learns the truth about Beth being the killer before she dies and asks Kate with her last breath...why?
Kate replies...wouldn't you?
Mary is dubious even as she dies. Would she really go to great lengths to protect a daughter with psychopathic, killer tendencies?
Kate thinks so and is awarded for being an enabler by being murdered by Beth.
Beth happily walks away, blood still on her shirt.
It's a long walk and it's morning now when a car stops beside her. The woman inside asks if she's lost before noticing the blood on her clothes. She asks about it and Beth smiles...evilly.
The woman is no doubt going to be her next victim.
Motherly was a taut thriller and the twist was interesting even though a tad predictable. Still, it was interesting the way the story was twisted to try to show that Kate was the killer when she was just protective.
Scare scale: 3/5
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