Maternal Masterpieces: Powerful Portrayals of Motherhood in Movies

Movies show motherhood in a variety of ways. Oftentimes, moms are the ones who roll their eyes at their husbands’ antics and are too often shoved into supporting roles. But times are changing (a bit slowly), and there have been great films that have tackled the fun, scary, and exhausting times that mothers face.

These 12 films have moms and the theme of motherhood at their core and ones you’ll want to watch and read the screenplays.

Scripts from this Article

Rosemary’s Baby

Terms of Endearment

Crooklyn

Stepmom

Erin Brockovich

The Kids Are All Right

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Room

Bad Moms

Tully

Women Talking

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Screenplay by: Roman Polanski and Ira Levin

In the late-1960s, movies started to take a darker, edgier turn. It was the beginning of young filmmakers who wanted to create grittier art for a time when counter-culture Baby Boomers were experiencing unpredictability amid wars, drafts, protests, riots, assassinations, and conspiracies. 

Rosemary’s Baby takes a look at motherhood from a gaslighting perspective. After the young couple moves into a new home in New York, Rosemary gets pregnant and begins feeling that things aren’t as they should be. It’s a darker look into pregnancy and the uncertainty of becoming a parent.

Many films tackle religion and evil, Rosemary’s Baby presents it from a worried soon-to-be mother who wants to protect her baby as she grows increasingly alone.

Read More: 7 Movies About Creepy Cults (And What They Can Teach You About Writing Horror)

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Screenplay by: James L. Brooks

What makes Terms of Endearment an excellent film is how imperfect all the characters are. Aurora is overbearing and hard to please, and her daughter, Emma, struggles to get the acceptance she craves and constantly feels judged in her rocky marriage. 

Aurora, who was controlling and influential in Emma’s life, now has a hole to fill as a widow and empty nester. Despite their troubles, they discover that they need each other as trouble plagues Emma’s marriage and her health.

Crooklyn (1994)

Screenplay by: Joie Lee, Cinqué Lee, and Spike Lee

Spike Lee’s semi-autobiographical story (which he wrote with his sisters) follows a Brooklyn family led by Carolyn, a strict school teacher and matriarch of the family who must raise one daughter and four sons in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community. Although not a single mom, she might as well be with the little help she gets from her husband, a struggling musician she occasionally throws out of the house but will always let come back in. 

The film shows the impact that a mother can have on her children’s lives and how keeping things together is a difficult and unappreciated job.

Read More: 5 Trademarks of a Spike Lee Script

Stepmom (1998)

Screenplay by: Ronald Bass, Gigi Levangie, Elizabeth Chandler, Jessie Nelson, and Steven Rogers

It seems that movies about motherhood are heartbreaking stories about love and loss. Stepmom is no exception as a terminally ill mother must come to terms with her ex-husband’s girlfriend stepping into the role of matriarch. 

It’s a hard concept to swallow: another woman taking care of your children, but there isn’t any maliciousness involved with this story (no evil stepmother here). The young Isabel tries to endear herself to her potential stepchildren but refuses to give up a successful career as a photographer as Jackie struggles with a recent cancer diagnosis and the likelihood that a woman she doesn’t deem good enough will become their only mother.

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Screenplay by: Susannah Grant

In her Oscar-winning role, Julia Roberts plays a single mom who ends up working for a lawyer she hired but can’t afford to pay. This true story follows the ambitious Erin Brockovich as she begins investigating a California energy company believed to be illegally dumping chemicals in a residential area. She must balance the intricacies of the case while taking care of her three young kids.

Her unconventional methods and determination led to one of the largest class action lawsuits in American history. But the film is also about a woman who chose to fight for those who truly needed help while trying to raise kids who begin to resent her absence.

Read More: The Verdict Is In: 10 Courtroom Scripts You Have to Read

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Screenplay by: Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg

What happens when the children who were conceived via artificial insemination want to meet their father? After raising two kids, a same-sex couple must come to terms with their teenage children bringing the father into their lives. This complicates the dynamic of the family as the kids want to spend more time with their father, and the friendships between one of the moms and one of the dads become difficult.

Read More: First Ten Pages: The Kids Are All Right (2010)

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Screenplay by: Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear

We Need to Talk About Kevin is truly one of the scarier films about motherhood, which presents one of the most tragic scenarios—not the death of a child, but the idea that your son was responsible for murdering others. 

The film follows Eva, a mother struggling to raise a child who is strange, difficult, and increasingly a danger in his actions and words. No parent thinks that their child will do something horrendous, but watching it unfold as Eva’s son grows up makes for a riveting and powerful look at motherhood and the things we can’t control, no matter how hard we try.

Room (2015)

Screenplay by: Emma Donoghue

Brie Larson was not new to the film and TV business, but it was Room that propelled her into the spotlight with an Oscar-winning performance about a kidnapped mother who gives birth to her captor’s son and must raise him in a sealed room. The five-year-old boy has spent his entire life inside this room and Larson’s character must raise him secluded from the world and yet teach him what it’s like outside the room in hopes of one day escaping. 

Motherhood in this movie is like most others: attempting to create a nurturing and loving environment in which her child can thrive, only this is within the high-stress situation of being kidnapped.

Bad Moms (2016)

Screenplay by: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore

Moms put a lot of pressure on each other. It seems like every other mom has time on her hands to do more and support their kids. Bad Moms recognizes this competition and shows that the stress isn’t worth it. 

The film focuses on three moms who are tired of being bossed around by the queen bee of the PTA and protesting by not following orders. Dropping their responsibilities and embracing some fun, the overworked trio becomes the envy of other moms who are eager for a much-needed break.

A comedy that any mom can relate to, Bad Moms is cathartic and a breath of fresh air. It also spawned a Christmas-style sequel the following year.

Tully (2018)

Screenplay by: Diablo Cody

Marlo is having a hard time with motherhood. Trying to raise three kids, one of which is a newborn, is draining her emotionally and physically. Her wealthy brother offers to set her up with a night nanny giving Marlo the help she desperately needs. 

Tully, which is the name of the night nurse, focuses on the toll of motherhood especially when juggling a child with special needs and a newborn baby.

Written by Academy Award-winning writer, Diablo Cody, the screenplay shows how to create a dramedy with a few surprising twists throughout.

Women Talking (2022)

Screenplay by: Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews

Based on a true story, Women Talking is an Academy Award-winning film about women in an isolated religious community debating whether to stay or leave after one of the women is abused. 

With time running out and a struggle of whether to flee the abusive patriarchy, the women debate on the merits of staying even in the face of abuse as is the expectation of their religious doctrine versus heading off on their own in a modern world.

What seems like a no-brainer discussion is not as easy as it seems as the traumatized mothers and daughters of the Mennonite community decide whether they should stay, rebel, or run.

Read More: 10 of the Best Scripts Written by Women

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Screenplay by: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

It’s hard to explain what Everything Everywhere All at Once is about, but one aspect is a mother trying to let her young daughter live her own life, even if it doesn’t align with what she wanted for her. 

Amid a crumbling business and marriage, Evelyn is whipped into an adventure that crosses universes yet remains connected. Not only will she come out on the other side of this journey stronger, but the relationships with her husband and daughter will become deeper and more meaningful.

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One thing that many of the movies on this list have in common is that they’ve been nominated for Academy Awards, so that makes them worth the read. These stories are filled with fear, pain, and joy, and the moms who manage these emotions try to do what’s best for their children.

These films offer a glimpse into lives that we may find both familiar and foreign, relatable and impossible, all at the same time.

Read More: Celebrating the Best (& Worst) Mothers in Film & TV