Mom’s Home

Three mothers–Harrian, Pam and May—and three daughters—Charmaine, Liz and Gloria—become characters whose names assume meaning in the irresistible documentary film called Mom’s Home. Aired on TVO on May 5, being broadcast again on Mother’s Day, May 9, at 10.30 p.m., and viewable online at tvo.org, the movie portrays the re-arrangement of lives that is inevitable when aging parents come to live with grown children.
It’s a testament to the quiet but powerful skill of director Maureen Judge that her subjects are impossible to shake. She finds beauty—and sadness and humour–in the accumulation of small and not always pretty truths that present themselves as the women engage in the struggles of wiles and wills that convolute even the most loving of blood ties.

Harrian in the morning with the scarf that’s kept her hair safe through the night; Pam in her basement “boudoir”; May fiercely defending an ugly lamp or opening her beautiful mouth to sing—there isn’t a scene that doesn’t reach the heart. Unforgettably, three mothers and three daughters add up to six women, each in her way smart and attractive enough to stir the hope that so too are we all. Not to be missed.