MOVIE REVIEWS : Savage, Unstable Mom at Heart of Elegant, Scary ‘Boys’

“Mother’s Boys,” a scary and unsettling drama of psychological suspense, is as elegant as it is risk-taking. No wonder Jamie Lee Curtis was lured into returning to the kind of genre film with which she launched her career, for this handsome picture affords her the most bravura role of her big-screen career.

She is Jude Madigan, a beautiful, sexy wife and mother of three sons who in the throes of postpartum depression, abandons her rich Los Angeles family to wander about Europe. When her husband, Robert (Peter Gallagher), at last files for divorce, having fallen in love with a demure but resilient assistant principal (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) at his 12-year-old son’s school, Jude abruptly terminates her three-year absence and returns home. No one, even her mother (Vanessa Redgrave), is remotely glad to see her.

Our initial tentative sympathy for Jude gradually evaporates when we realize that she’s not interested in merely winning visiting rights or even partial custody of her three children. She is absolutely and utterly determined to get back her entire family, including her husband. In time we realize we’re in the presence of a dangerously unstable but utterly ruthless and resourceful woman.

Working with Barry Schneider and Richard Hawley’s adroit adaptation of Bernard Taylor’s novel, director Yves Simoneau dares to proceed at a languorous pace, which soon provides a fine contrast to Curtis’ nervy, multifaceted portrayal of the savage--and sometimes savagely funny--Jude and ultimately sets up a jolting, literally cliff-hanging finish. The script is anchored in two sad truths about human nature: that the demons of one generation can so easily infect the next, and that nice, decent people can be exceedingly vulnerable to the clever sociopath.

Simoneau is wonderful with his actors, especially with young Luke Edwards in the pivotal role of Kes, the eldest son, the only one old enough to remember and feel abandoned by his mother, who proceeds to manipulate him for her own ends. “Mother’s Boys” climaxes in an edge-of-your-seat action-filled finish, but it’s actually at its scariest in its convincing depiction of the horrendous things people do to one another in the name of love.

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‘Mother’s Boys’

Jamie Lee Curtis: Jude

Peter Gallagher: Robert

Joanne Whalley-Kilmer: Callie

Vanessa Redgrave: Lydia

Luke Edwards: Kes

A Dimension Films presentation. Director Yves Simoneau. Producers Jack E. Freedman, Wayne S. Williams, Patricia Herskovic. Executive producers Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Randall Poster. Screenplay by Barry Schneider, Richard Hawley; based on the novel by Bernard Taylor. Cinematographer Elliot Davis. Visual consultant Peter Paul Raubertas. Editor Michael Ornstein. Costumes Deena Appel, Simon Tuke. Music George S. Clinton. Art director David Bomba. Set decorator Barbara Cassel. Sound Clark King. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

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MPAA rating: R, for language and for a mother’s sociopathic behavior. Times guidelines: It includes several scenes of a mother’s violent behavior, directed at her own children as well as others, which are far too intense and terrifying for children. * In general release.