Mama a Spanish/Canadian horror offering from Andrés Muschietti is an almost there, but mostly missed opportunity. The story of two little girls that apparently raised themselves after the suicide of their father sounds intriguing. Include the…but did they? And you have the seeds for a creepy good time. And in part it almost was a creepy good time. The fairly lack luster performances of Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau were more than made up for by the performances of the two young children Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse. These two little darlings give performances that were so creepy they managed to be ominous.
After an interesting start of expected evils and hints of the truth the story contained the seeds not only of horror, but also the potential transformation of all the characters. Unfortunately, Mama went from a terrifying evil to a caricature from a fairy story. Then the supposed growth of the character played by Jessica Chastain managed to fail at the last moment when two Mamas were fighting for dominance. The movie showed the unhealthy obsession of both child and pseudo-mother except it didn’t take the potential of the new mother to the truth—where there should have been sacrifice there was only the usual cliché ending. Perhaps the director was intending to please the expectations of a horror audience, but I believe he missed an opportunity to reveal a profound change in the characters. And most importantly build upon the lack of change in one.
6.5/10 It could have done better.
The problem with hope is that it is a balancing act between despair and joy. As I send partials out to agents I find myself maintaining only a cautious optimism as a partial is only a tiny step up the ladder. If that manages to pass muster then there is the full–agents often like a partial and reject a full as it may not fill the expectation the partial creates. And if you manage the joy of joys and get an agent then you are struggling with rejection of publishers. There are people who live charmed lives, that get agents easily and then published without too much drama and then there are the rest of us. 
