Reel Talk’s Alison Bailes – Top 5 Films for New Mothers to Avoid
Alison Bailes of Lyon and Bailes Reel Talk will be contributing a weekly column to CBB. She recently gave birth to her second child, son Frederick, on October 18th. Alison also has a daughter named Agatha Violet.
Here is her first column.
As a mother of two, it’s becoming much more difficult to watch certain films where children are neglected, abandoned, attacked, etc. I’m even a bit hesitant to see this December’s “Kite Runner.” Apparently, one of the young main characters is the victim of a sexual attack –- and that does not sit well with me. Perhaps my feelings are just a phase and once my children get older I’ll ease out of this. It’s quite possible, but only time will tell.
During my interview today with Keri Russell, who stars in “August Rush,” (in theaters November 21), I was comforted to discover I’m not the only mother out there who just can’t stomach films with child victims.
"Sophie’s Choice" - Meryl Streep has to choose to give up one of her children. How can you choose between your children? What logic can you possibly use when you know you are sending one of them to almost certain death?
"A Cry in the Dark" – Meryl Streep (again) has to cope with the disappearance of her newborn — and is then accused of murdering it. Relates to the current story of the English girl who vanished in Portugal.
"Tsotsi" – We see a newborn baby in the incapable hands of a murdering hoodlum. Every second I feared for the baby’s life and anguished for the mother.
"Gone Baby Gone" - A four-year-old vanishes. Worse, the mother is seemingly indifferent.
"Rosemary’s Baby" – Mia Farrow must decide whether to be a mother to her baby, even though she realizes he is the devil’s child!
Am I (and Keri Russell) alone on this? Are there other films new parents would rather avoid?
- Posted on Nov 12, 07 at 2:14PM
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- 28 Comments
November 12th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
I would also add “It’s Alive,” “The Brood,” “Village Of The Damned,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “The Fly” (with Jeff Goldblum), and “Alice, Sweet Alice” to the list. Pretty much any horror movie involving children and childbirth shouldn’t be watched by new mothers or mothers-to-be.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Sophie’s Choice is heartbreaking beyond words! The choice is just impossible to comprehend and it happens so quickly in the film, that makes it even worse.
The Kite Runner … I don’t think I could watch the movie, but the book is outstanding. I read it in one day, as I could not put it down.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
To add to Shannon’s list, I would think the movie Alien would be a scare factor for some pregnant women. It was a rather horrifying “birth” that John Hurt went through at the dinner table. Not exactly a human child in this case, but if you’ve seen the movie, I would think some pregnant women may get the creeps by it.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I would add Blood Diamond or any movie that shows the violence of war on children. It’s amazing to me that now that I’m a mother I can not stomache to watch any violence against children in film. Every child seems to be replaced with visions of my own children in my mind.
Worse than that (and possibly off the subject), I went to see 30 Days of Night with my husband, and it is an R-rated gruesome film, but what appalled me more than anything is that some mother brought her 3 or 4 year old to see the movie. Some parents have no common sense, and I think there should be stricter theater rules.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Ransom with Mel Gibson!
November 12th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I have to agree with Amy. Blood Diamonds… I almost had to turn the movie off early on because I couldn’t bear to watch the child soldiers. I found it extremely difficult because I know this type of thing goes on. Absolutely heartbreaking!
November 12th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Don’t see The Hand That Rocks the Cradle or that one with Michelle Pfeiffer (The Deep End of the Ocean?) where her son just disappears and then they find him years later.
November 12th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I am not a new mom by far – and I can’t watch Sophie’s Choice. I get choked up even just talking about it. So heartbreaking!!
November 12th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
i first saw trainspotting 10+ years ago when i was pregnant with my first. not a good choice. :/
November 12th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
There is also a scene in the movie Black Hawk Down when the soldiers are trying to get out of Mogadishu and are being told on their radios to remember the rules of engagement and how you can’t fire on women and children. A mother in a long skirt is standing near the soldiers and she raises her skirt to reveal a child under there with a high powered weapon. It is very hit wrenching!
I would also have to agree with Rosemary’s Baby. It is a great movie but completely horrifying! Especially for new or pregnant mommies!
November 12th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
My husband wouldn’t allow me to watch The Butterfly Effect while pregnant because the main character kills himself in utero to prevent bad things from happening! The Hills Have Eyes remake made me sick as well.
I know that ER isn’t a movie, but it is hard to watch when you have kids since they always either kill off or put the lead character’s children in really awful situations.
November 12th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I agree wholeheartedly (and I thought I was just overly sensitive). I can’t watch any of the movies mentioned. It’s rather surprising that Affleck is behind the movie Gone Baby Gone — that’s a bit weird to me considering he has a beautiful little girl. One would think he would be a bit more sensitive about using such subject matter as entertainment. I won’t see that movie, that’s for sure (I might just boycott all his work — that will not be difficult. LOL.)
November 12th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Have to agree that the remake of “The Hills Have Eyes” should be on this list. It made me feel sick to watch it.
November 12th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
“It’s rather surprising that Affleck is behind the movie Gone Baby Gone — that’s a bit weird to me considering he has a beautiful little girl. One would think he would be a bit more sensitive about using such subject matter as entertainment.”
Forgive me, but I don’t understand why you are judging Ben Affleck and his movie like this when you obviously have not seen it and don’t know much about it. “Gone Baby Gone” happens to be a fantastic, well-crafted film that makes a powerful statement about child welfare. It is definitely a thinking person’s movie and is more interested in getting the audience to ponder the issues presented than entertaining them. I don’t know that I’d necessarily recommend it to a new mother, but if she thought she could handle it, I would. I think it’s a movie everyone should see at some point. Should Casey Affleck have not made the movie since he has a little boy? Will you be boycotting his work too? Ben deals with the movie’s subject matter as sensitively as possible while still getting the point across, so criticizing him for not being sensitive enough when you haven’t even seen the movie baffles me.
I’d add “Cold Mountain” to the list, or at least Natalie Portman’s scenes. Those are definitely tough to sit through. And maybe “Crash.” But it’s tough to say because it’s really all about the individual viewer’s tolerance level.
November 12th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
I agree with Linda…Trainspotting still wrecked me even though my lovely friends have never let me fully watch the certain scene that is so awful. My youngest child is 4 and every time I see something terrible happen to a child in a movie I can’t help but think of my baby in that situation. It stays with me for way too long. I’m so glad to know that’s it’s not just me!
November 12th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
I can’t watch the joy luck club, to this day I can think of the bath scene and immediately choke up. Same with MASH when the mother had to smother her baby because it was crying. I was a kid and now as a mom the scene still haunts me.
November 12th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Wow, you all are so right about Trainspotting, I’d forgotten that. I love that movie (it’s so well-made and engaging) but every time I watch it I have to skip the baby parts. It really is horrific.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I agree with Heather about Joy Luck Club. That was the first movie I thought of. I must have been pregnant when I watched it for the first time, because now I can’t even think about watching it.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:27 am
Tigereye…maybe a tad bit overboard.The movie got good ratings and it’s about something that needs to be discussed and really happens.Sure, a kid shouldn’t see it but it wouldn’t be a bad movie to see to discuss with friends. How can you judge a movie without ever seeing it. For this list I would add “Million Dollar Baby” cause kids would have a hard time understanding it but it’s a great movie with great acting.Another would be “Imitation of Life” from 1959 cause it’s way too sad…I still tear up thinking about it
November 13th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Before I was a mother I was able to watch movies about losing children in wars, accidents, due to illnesses. They moved me and made me cry, but now, it’s impossible for me watch such movies without mini emotional breakdown. No, I just can’t watch such movies anymore.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:30 am
There is a terrific little movie called Junebug that has a rather difficult ending for a pregnant woman to watch. (I won’t give away any details in case anyone wants to see it, but I will say the film involves a young woman who is ready to give birth.) I really enjoyed the film but was glad I saw it after I gave birth; seeing it beforehand would probably have made me quite anxious.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Joy Luck Club was also the first movie that sprang to mind for me. I saw it when I was pregnant with my second child. It haunted me for months. It is a beautiful story otherwise, but that particular scene with the baby was just horrific.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
What about “My Life” with Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman? Or “Steel Magnolias” and “Terms of Endearment”?
November 15th, 2007 at 1:47 am
I agree with the previous poster and “My Life”. I saw that while pregnant with my first child and I just cried and cried.
Other movies I would add are “Dead Calm” with Nicole Kidman and “The Seventh Sign” with Demi Moore.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:17 am
I don’t know how many people have actully seen the movie let alone read the book but Bastard Out Of Carolina was assigned during my Southern Lit class when I was in my first trimester and it was one of the hardest things for me to watch. Not only is there physical abuse, by sexual and mental as well. After reading the book and watching the movie I found out that it was semi-autobiographical which made the entire experience even harder.
November 18th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
So funny! We featured this post on the weekly web roundup at http://www.thenestbaby.com.
And… my addition… Raising Arizona. Even the most bumbling kidnappers aren’t so funny when you’re expecting.
November 24th, 2007 at 10:47 am
What about a bigger issue here? Forgive me if I’m slightly off-topic. I was ignorant to this but let’s imagine a child is acting to be sexually or physically abused by somebody. In our heads we think it’s just acting but in a nut shell it’s a kid ‘pretending’ to be in a given horrific situation thus being exposed to it at an earlier age. I mean if a child actor is a teenager, it’s not so bad, but it’s kid is under 8 or something, it just seems wrong. You wouldn’t let your children watch an R rated movie, imagine these child actors actually star in the movie. I was thinking of movies such as “Running Scared”(2006), for example, and the couple who were the child abductors.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Joshua (2007)
Plot: The Cairn’s life seems to be a harmonic family: The father Brad works as a stockbroker, his wife Abby takes care of their new-born daughter Lily, and 9-year-old Joshua is highly talented. But the appearances are deceptive. Joshua becomes increasingly jealous, since his parents give the baby more attention than him. Therefore he begins to terrorize his family.