The Bad Mother’s Handbook (2007/British TV Movie/Lionsgate DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Telefilm: C+
Just
before he broke out in the Twilight
films, Robert Pattinson was making his rounds as a young character actor and in
the midst of his Harry Potter films,
he did a British TV movie called The Bad
Mother’s Handbook (2007), about a woman named Karen (Catherine Tate good in
a somewhat thankless role) who overdoes running her household when it backfires
and her daughter Charlotte (Holly Grainger) gets pregnant at too young an age
and unmarried.
One thing
she does not realize is how much of a crush dorky, introverted, awkward Daniel
(Pattinson) has on her and will soon be more of a support to her than she could
have ever imagined. This is a short 67
minutes and a U.S. remake was actually made a year later by ABC with Alicia
Silverstone, Megan Mullally and Horatio Sanz, but this is not bad considering
some of its predictability.
Director
Robin Shepperd (who helmed the hilarious early episodes of At Home With The Braithwaites, reviewed elsewhere on this site)
brings the same energy and intelligence to this project and though the cast is
not bad, Pattinson actually strands out in a comic, scene-stealing role that
shows he does have a sense of humor and comic timing. Without the living dead make-up, he looks at
least five years younger. You could do
worse than this and it is worth a look for those interested.
The
letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is a little soft and has its motion blur, but the overall
shoot is not bad, but this is an HD shoot.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix tries to stretch out what is a simple stereo
soundtrack at best, but the actual recording is not too bad. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
