The movie
Show notes
The well-crafted drama Mother of George takes place in one of those small communities from overseas transplanted into urban American society, in this case a vibrant group of Nigerians living in Brooklyn. The lengthy and carefully observed opening sequence is of a traditional Nigerian wedding, with its lovely music and shimmering colors. The bride, Adenike, played by Danai Gurira, is glowing with joy and excitement, clearly in love with her groom Ayodele, played by the marvelous actor Isaach de Bankole. The groom’s mother wishes the bride joy and fertility, and predicts that she will first have a son. Later she asks her privately that the son be named George, after her deceased husband, Ayo’s father. When the bliss of the wedding is over, the couple gradually passes into the happy routine of domesticity. Ayo manages an African restaurant with the help of his brother Biyi, who is secretly dating Adenike’s beautiful friend Sade. A portent of Adenike’s uncertainty in her role is when Sade helps her pick out a blouse that she thinks her husband will like, but it’s too sheer, and the more conservative Ayo doesn’t like it. The issue, the trouble that arises, is far greater than this trivial event. No matter how they try, the couple can’t get pregnant. And although Ayo, with a sort of passive live-and-let-live manner, doesn’t seem to care, his mother does, and she becomes more and more insistent that Adenike have a baby. The story is by Darci Picoult, and the film is directed by Andrew Dosunmu. The dilemma of being expected to have children, and being ashamed if you can’t, has the specific flavor of this African subculture, but the implications are not confined by culture. With the exception of the mother-in-law, whose controlling strategies cause needless suffering, everyone in the film has good reasons and good intentions. Expectations about what a marriage should be, or a man or woman’s role, envelop the characters like an invisible blanket. Gurira, who has the central r
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