On Ne Change Pas: Mommy Reflection
Xavier Dolan’s Mommy is a look at the difficult, violent , and humorous life of a single mom struggling to cope with her problematic son. The movie is filled with heart wrenching scenes of Steve and his mother struggling deeply with issues of anger, substance abuse, and the criminal justice system. The movie opens as Die is going to pick Steve up from the juvenile detention center that he attempted to set fire to. The audience is immediately let in on the fact that Die is no normal “Mommy” and Steve is no normal son. As Steve and Die walk to the bus stop loud pop music blares and the seemingly sweet relationship mother and son shares capture the viewer. As the movie progresses both Steve and Die begin to show their flaws, only momentarily helped by their neighbor Kayla. While Kayla helps Steve and Die immensely: tutoring Steve, babysitting him etc., it is clear that one befriended neighbor can’t solve the issues Die and Steve have.
My favorite thing about Mommy was the use of music. The soundtrack was current, while still feeling timeless and the scenes were carefully cut and crafted as if each scene were a music video for the song it accompanied. The montage scenes that accompanied full songs I knew and loved were their own little works of art within the movie as a whole. For example, in one particularly odd but telling scene, Steve, Die and Kayla dance to carefully chosen “On Ne Change Pas” by Celine Dion. In English, the meaning of ‘On Ne Change Pas” is “We Don’t Change,” pointing to the cycle of love and hostility Die and Steve find themselves in (also this is one of my longtime favorite songs). The long scene of Kayla’s first night with the family shows intimacy, as Steve dresses up, like a little boy and begins to dance around the kitchen listening to his father’s old CD. The scene also highlights the close and complicated relationship between Steve and his mother, as Steve grabs her breasts, suggesting perhaps that Steve’s father wasn’t there during a crucial part of his growing up, and thus Steve does these inappropriate things. Music is also used in the scenes of freedom, where the 1:1 aspect ratio is broken and the character immediately gains a degree of freedom. During the scene where Steve, Die and Kayla are biking, Oasis’s Wonderwall plays in the background, showing a montage of freedom that the characters rarely feel. The characters in Mommy are trapped in their issues, just like the aspect ratio. The montage scenes with full songs and the two scenes where the aspect ratio is changed are key developing points of the film, where we get a glimpse into the freedom and normality Die and Steve long for.
See the scenes mentioned here:
