PLOT SUMMARY: Amanda lives a quiet life in a farm with her daughter Chris. Her life is upturned when she receives her mother's remains.
There are movies with great stories, made greater by great actors. Then there are mediocre stories made great by great actors. And of course the terrible stories, terrible acting and terrible direction.
Umma faces one of those situations where it doesn't matter what the story is and whether it is effectively scary or not. The main characters, Amanda, played by Sandra Oh, is simply too overpowering.
Not once do you feel like you are watching a woman haunted by her past. You see Sandra Oh all the way. Her personality shines through the unassuming character she is supposed to be playing.
The story is decidedly boring and not executed properly. Sandra Oh doesn't fully meld into her character. All these factors work against the movie.
UMMA Movie Plot
Amanda awakens from a nightmare involving a broken lamp and exposed wires and gashes on hands. She promptly picks up the lamp and takes it down to a cellar and throws it inside. She then locks the cellar.
Time passes and Amanda's hairstyle has changed. She also has a daughter Chris.
The duo run a farm raising bees, producing honey, and also have chickens.
Amanda lives a blissful existence but Chris is growing up feeling like she needs more from her life.
A truck comes up the road and the driver is mindful about turning off the engine at the sign, and then switching off his phone and putting it into the glove compartment.
He then delivers groceries to Amanda and Chris who know him well, almost like family. His name is Danny. He also picks up jars of honey from Amanda and informs her that a viral post made by a blogger has increased the demand for her honey. Amanda isn't too familiar with the terms but is excited to know that her honey is selling.
Chris sulks about a lot throughout the movie. One day, she rides her bike to the town when she is stopped by a car. The man speaks in Korean and Chris can't understand a word of it. She does peek in to look at the suitcase with a scarf on it that depicts a fox on it. Later we see a fox with nine tails too, a nod to Korean mythology where a nine-tailed fox is known to be a shape-shifter and takes the form of women who creates mischief. Its relevance in this story is never fully explained and those who are familiar with the mythology may understand the significance.
Anyway, Chris rides into the town to see Danny and gets self-conscious in front of a group of kids who spend the whole day sitting on the back of a truck in front of a grocery store and chuckling at the only home-schooled kid in town.
Danny takes her shopping list and introduces her to his niece, River.
Chris comments about her wearing her make up nicely. River comments about how Chris is lucky to have freckles. The girls instantly bond over this.
Meanwhile, the man in the car has made it to Amanda's farm but since he doesn't know a lick of English, doesn't understand the signboard that states to turn off the car at that point. In retrospect, Amanda should have made the path to the house narrower or added in a fence or something.
Anyway, the man gets out of the car and Amanda recognizes him as her uncle.
He announces that her mother has passed away and that she wanted her daughter to put her to rest. Amanda is shocked. Her uncle taunts her how her mother had called out to her in her last moments but of course Amanda wasn't there. He also reproaches her about changing her Korean name which was Soo-hyun and then not teaching her daughter her native language. The man recognizes the girl he saw on the road in the numerous photos Amanda has in the house.
Amanda has had enough of him insulting her and tells him to leave the house. He does but he also leaves her to deal with the suitcase.
Amanda is tortured by memories and is upset. Clearly her mother was abusive.
When Chris returns, the house is in darkness and she gets concerned for her mother. But Amanda maintains her silence regarding the suitcase that Chris spots and forces a smile. She then asks what her daughter has on her face.
Turns out River had lent Chris her lip gloss and Amanda had only asked what it was. Chris didn't have to wipe it off and take offense but she does.
Amanda puts the suitcase in the cellar of broken lamps and secrets but she is clearly being haunted by a presence. The presence ends up opening all the drawers in Chris' room. That is when Amanda notices that there is a college application in the drawer. Amanda feels betrayed that her daughter wants to go to college and leave her alone.
She confronts Chris who tells her that it was Danny's idea that she try out for school. Amanda gets angry that Danny is interfering but then Chris points out that Danny is literally the only friend this family has.
The next time Danny comes for the deliveries, Amanda goes on about how she was an accountant and knew nothing about bees but that one day Chris came home, fascinated by bees and Amanda had gone to great lengths to create a beehive colony for her to make her happy. Danny gets the gist that Amanda is taunting him and tells her that Chris practically asked him for the application and had not suggested it much like Chris had implied. He then tells Amanda whether she really expected Chris to stay with her forever.
Amanda makes a face. Of course she did. She had done it for Chris after all. And now Chris wanted to leave? How dare she! But Amanda tries to make peace with the fact that she will have to sell all this honey on her own now.
She is moping around the house and keeps seeing her mother in a robe and mask before her. At night, Amanda is lured outside and she sees weird things like the nine-tailed fox and hears her mother calling out for her.
She then sees a baby chick coming towards her. Before she can gather it in her hands, someone steps on the chick. It's her mother. Amanda tries to swat her hands away but it turns out it was Chris who had come to check up on her mother. Amanda is taken back home but we never find out if the chick is safe or not. Hopefully it was an illusion?
Amanda tries to behave normal even as she feels the presence of her mother around, whispering in her ear, telling her how her daughter needs discipline.
Amanda talks to Danny about him coming over with his niece so they can have a game night.
River and Chris are visibly bored as Amanda plays an extremely slow game. When Amanda calls for round two, Chris and River head upstairs to gab. When River removes the phone from her pocket, Chris is shocked, citing that her mother has an "allergy" to electricity and it makes her sick which is why they live like they belong in an era before electricity was invented. River points out she had the phone this whole time and Amanda was totally fine.
UMMA Ending Explained with spoilers!
Chris begins to doubt her mother's irrational fear of electricity. Even if her mother wasn't "allergic" to electricity, clearly she is afraid and has breakdowns during lightning storms. Chris should have understood there was something else behind her mother's fear of electricity rather than calling her a liar which she does in a later scene.
Chris then confronts Danny and he admits he knew Amanda wasn't "allergic" to electricity but he maintains that he thought Chris knew and that they gave in to Amanda's rules against electricity. Chris storms out and goes to have an argument with her mother.
Amanda tells her she's being ungrateful considering she put her whole life on hold for her. Amanda had given up her job as an accountant to raise bees. When Chris couldn't cope in school, Amanda had homeschooled her. When Chris had problems making friends, Amanda had invited River over because Chris couldn't even manage to do that herself.
Chris still calls her a psycho after she put on a robe she found in the attic and Amanda tore it off her because it belonged to her mother. Amanda slaps her and Chris slaps her mother right back. So...it's bad when parents hit kids to discipline them but it is okay for kids to hit their parents? Later on, Amanda is the only one seen apologising while Chris thinks she is the poor victim.
Chris goes off and is picked up by River who tells her it's okay to be weird and that she needs to do things for herself.
Amanda is haunted by more whisperings from her mother who tells her that Chris needs to be punished.
Eventually, Chris demands to know what is in the suitcase but Amanda wants to keep her secrets. Chris threatens to leave and Amanda eventually relents.
She tells her how the suitcase contains the ashes of her real mother. Her real mother, Umma, was abusive and used electric shock as punishment when Amanda misbehaved.
Chris feels bad for Amanda and decides it's better for the cellar to remain locked.
But Amanda has had it with her mother haunting her and ruining her relationship with Chris. She tries to bury her but is dragged into the grave.
When Chris comes back, the house is in darkness and she finds her mother wearing the robes. Amanda dons the mask as well and starts to berate Chris.
Chris realizes her mother is possessed by her grandmother. She is attacked and when Chris begs for her life, Amanda manages to break through the possession but she is pulled into the house and memory where she sees her Umma.
Amanda speaks to her Umma and says she understands that she had an abusive husband and so she projected that on her daughter. In an instant, Umma understands and then disappears, knowing that she finally has her daughter's forgiveness. Perhaps that is why she sought her daughter and wasn't at peace.
Amanda returns to Chris and realizes she needs to let her daughter live her life and to not suppress her.
They perform a ceremony the traditional way and let Umma to rest.
Some time passes and Chris is accepted into college. She's heading out and Danny is going to drive her there. Amanda seems perky enough to finally see her daughter go. Perhaps she can finally do what she wants to do now too.
But in the end, we still see someone in Umma's robe.
Is she just watching her daughter or does she want to discipline her daughter still?
Apart from Sandra Oh's overpowering presence that took over the movie, the story lacked thrills and the ability to completely grip your attention. There were too many opportunities to scare and to show Umma as a menacing entity going to great lengths to "discipline" her daughter even after death.
There certainly could have been more scenes to show how Umma uses electricity to still torture Amanda.
The climax especially was immensely disappointing with Umma barely putting up a fight. She just sits in a chair and is content with being psychoanalyzed by her daughter.
Watch the movie only if you are a Sandra Oh fan.
Scare Scale: 2/5
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