Following lots of hype surrounding Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel coming to the big screen and the potential of a performance from Amy Adams finally garnering her an Oscar, the trailer for Marielle Heller’s new film Nightbitch deflated a lot of the anticipation from cinephiles. It looked absurdist and overly jokey for a film that was thought to take a serious look at what new mothers experience as they transition into matriarchs. Now that the film is here, were the concerns correct or overblown?
Nightbitch follows a former artist, only referred to as Mother (Amy Adams), who pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom seeking to come to terms with her new chapter in life as her husband (Scoot McNairy) continues on with his career and helps her as he can. As the stress of being a mother to a toddler and a homemaker builds, her nightly routine takes a surreal turn and her maternal instincts begin to manifest in canine form as she transforms into a dog at night.
The attention grabber for this film is undoubtedly the transformation that mother goes through from human to canine. And while that transformation does factor in the story, the sensationalist, metaphorical hook of transmutation is secondary to Nightbitch’s exploration of what women go through as they transition into motherhood. What Mother is experiencing throughout the film is a struggle with her changing identity from a professional woman who happens to be married to a wife and mother and all the complexities that entails. What Nightbitch depicts so well is the complication many women feel as new mothers, a combination of regret and intense love and care for their newborn. It would have been easy for Heller to cover this simplistically in the typical way that our modern feminist culture presents motherhood for working women, as an albatross weighing women down that must be overcome or avoided altogether.
What Nightbitch does though is tackle this topic in a nuanced way that shows the mixed feelings about trying to balance professionalism and motherhood in a way that satisfies both inclinations and how at various times, one may win over the other. The first half of the film is a black comedy in every sense of the term, with it turning more toward drama in the latter half. The switch isn’t jarring and feels natural and well paced, balancing the entertainment aspect and the emotionality very well. The film also covers how the struggle transcends generations as we learn the struggle to adapt to motherhood is something that Mother ‘s mother also struggled through. Jessica Harper appears in the film as friendly librarian Norma who reinforces this generational aspect and provides wisdom and support for Mother as an older woman who has been in her shoes.
Nightbitch effectively touches upon on the outside world deals with mothers and women who have children, perhaps most effectively during a swanky New York dinner scene where Mother reconnects with childless friends from her high society professional life. There we see how women who have become mothers are sneered at and looked down upon from child rearing with the view that raising children isn’t contributory enough to the world. This reinforces a very resonate conversation Mother has earlier in the film with a group on new mothers lamenting the lack of societal and institutional support for mothers. Both scenes are sure to resonate with mothers and effectively highlight real world issues within the film’s plot.
A constant source of frustration for Mother is how her husband (notice her name is linked toward parentage while his remains just “husband” does not have to bear the same weight that she does when it comes to the changes that parenthood brings about. In addition to his work travel, Husband is lax on providing a helping hand and laments the changes Mother has gone through emotionally and mentally in the wake of the birth of their child. This too is a plot thread that could have degenerated into cliche, but instead, the relationship between the two is treated with care and takes seriously both of their perspectives without turning Husband into a caricature of a bad man.
Much has been said in the lead up to the release of Nightbitch; is it too much of an absurdist comedy? Is it too feminist? What the film is is a well balanced, nuanced exploration of how motherhood challenges women, how society treats mothers, and how women are left to navigate this new and treacherous terrain on their own in order to find and mold their new identities in the wake of having children. The film hits every avenue of the issue of motherhood and how it both clashes with and accentuates feminine identity, managing at once to be both highly entertaining and thought provoking. There are several laugh out loud moments before things turn serious in the latter half of the film and both work wonderfully. Amy Adams provides a fantastic performance sure to go down as one of the best of the year that hits every emotional beat asked of her. She is funny when the film calls for it and tugs on the heart strings when things turn serious. Nightbitch is a revelation and surely worth your time.
Image: Searchlight Pictures
