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Favourite Movie Mums
With Mother’s Day just past, it’s
given us all time to think about Mums and how much we love ‘em! They
come in all shapes, sizes and temperaments and we relish nothing more
than enjoying their quirky moments and mocking their strange routines.
The big screen has seen its fair share of maternal role models, so in
light of Oscar-winning The Blind Side, out 26th March,
where feisty Mom Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by the lovely Sandra Bullock,
takes a homeless teenager under her wing and helps nurture him into a
NFL star, here are some of our favourite movie Mums:
 Mums
really do maketh the movie in 1989 hit Steel Magnolias
about a close-knit circle of Louisiana girlfriends, mainly Mums from
different generations who come together at
Truvy's Beauty Parlour to share the good times and the bad. But it is
Sally Field as their ‘maternal leader’ M'Lynn who will be forever
remembered for her grief-ridden paddy at her daughter Shelby’s (Julia
Roberts) graveside because of her baby’s untimely death – as well as
M’Lynn’s sudden realisation that she does indeed have a
‘football-helmet’ hairdo, as Shelby once commented!
One stylish Mum who always has the
‘wow’ factor about her and makes the perfect entrance every time is
Gothic beauty Morticia Addams, played by Angelica Huston in The
Addams Family (1991). Ironically born ‘Frump’, this maternal
vamp in black and fiercely loyal mother of Wednesday and Pugsley is both
gentle and devilish in nature and the glue that holds the oddball family
together. She also frequently enjoys cutting the buds off of roses which
she discards, keeping only the stems.
 Mrs
(Euphegenia) Doubtfire – ok, technically not a ‘Mum’, not
even a female for that matter, but one that typified all the homely
comforts in one bubbly, buxom lady. Donning a wig and fat suit, Robin
William is simply unforgettable as Euphegenia, dancing around a hot
stove with his breasts on fire, and getting seriously sloshed on a
double-booked date at a restaurant. But the best thing about Mrs D was
her great ability to tell a story that made us instantly warm to her
back in 1993.
Two mums for the price of one in
1998 film Stepmom. This tearjerker saw some childish antics
from mumsy Mom Jackie Harrison (Susan Sarandon) and younger,
hipper Stepmom Isabel Kelly (Julia Roberts) in a battle of wills
for the kids’ affections. But all’s well that ends well, though, and the
two become the best of friends in Jackie’s final hour – plus a rather
nifty-looking quilt gets created amidst all the family sorrow.
She casts a warm, glowing spell
over all that come to stay at her home, the ramshackle Burrow, and took
Boy Wizard Harry Potter under her wing. Pure witch and matriarch of the
Weasley family, Molly Weasley is affectionately brought
to live by Julie Walters in the Harry Potter series. This busy
worry wart fusses around her extended brood, but is highly protective
with a true fighting spirit when it comes to confronting Lord Voldemort
and his enemies and keeping her kids alive.
Fighting spirit doesn’t come much
stronger than from our next mum who not only juggles bringing up her
kids alone, but single-handedly brings down a California power company
accused of polluting a city's water supply. Who can forget Julia
Roberts’ portrayal of mini-skirt, stiletto-wearing, yummy Mummy
Erin Brockovich - a real-life American legal clerk and
environmental activist, which won Roberts the Best Actress award at the
Oscars in 2001.
Considering she started out her
career in some sizzling roles like the erotic Nine 1/2 Weeks,
luscious-lipped and leggy Kim Basinger has played her fair share
of
 Mums.
As the overly enthusiastic, other-worldly Celeste with a dubious,
one-eyed handbag, she had a taste for battery acid in My
Stepmother Is an Alien (1988), driving dorky scientist Steven
Mills (Dan Aykroyd) into orbit in the bedroom. In 2002 Basinger played
the grittier role of Stephanie Smith, alcoholic mother of rapper Jimmy
'B-Rabbit' Smith in Eminem’s acclaimed 8 Mile, starring opposite
the rapper as B-Rabbit.
She’s got sex on the brain and goes
out of her way to do that thing most Mums do: embarrass the hell out of
you in public – but tenfold. Barbra Streisand had us in stitches
as Rosalind ‘Roz’ Focker, mother of Greg Focker (Ben Stiller), an ultra
liberal sex therapist for senior citizens who gets part of Greg’s former
anatomy out at the dinner table in front of his horrified conservative
in-laws-to-be in Meet the Fockers
(2004). Watch out for more of this mum’s hilarious antics in the
2010 sequel.
The Blind Side is released in cinemas nationwide on 26th March.
Teenager Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is surviving on his
own, virtually homeless, when he is spotted on the street by Leigh Anne
Tuohy (Sandra Bullock). Learning that the young man is one of her
daughter’s classmates, Leigh Anne insists that Michael—wearing shorts
and a t-shirt in the dead of winter—come out of the cold. Without a
moment’s hesitation, she invites him to stay at the Tuohy home for the
night. What starts out as a gesture of kindness turns into something
more as Michael becomes part of the Tuohy family despite the differences
in their backgrounds. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a
completely different set of challenges to overcome. And as the family
helps Michael fulfill his potential, both on and off the football field,
Michael’s presence in the Tuohys’ lives leads them to some insightful
self-discoveries of their own.
For further information on the release please visit:
wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/theblindside
© 2001 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved
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