Mother and Child explores the unbreakable bond against all odds, between mothers and their children.

Rodrigo Garcia – son of the novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez – whose earlier works include Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her and Nine Lives pairs up with executive producer Alejandro González Iñárritu known for melting every narrative together in movies such as 21Grams and Babel, to craft this powerful although sometimes predictable drama.

The film is founded on three strong performances by Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Kerry Washington.

Mistrustful and bitter Karen (Bening) gave her daughter for adoption when she was a teenager and has since then been haunted by it. That baby has grown up to be Elizabeth (Watts) a fearsome ambitious attorney, who just landed a high-profile job. She makes no attempt to hide her unwillingness to forge attachments of any kind, even telling new boss Paul (Samuel L. Jackson) she would prefer to report to a man because she’s “not part of the sisterhood.”

Meanwhile, maternal-minded baker Lucy (Kerry Washington) longs to experience the joys of motherhood, eventually deciding that adoption is the best bet to start a family with her husband, Joseph (David Ramsey).

For most part of the movie you cannot guess how or if these characters stories will merge and it’s a credit to Garcia that the disparate plots melt so cleverly.

He brings a delicate touch to Mother and Child, shooting it with minimal flair and keeping the focus on his cast whose strong acting helps pave some of the narrative’s weaker patches and holds the interest of the viewer.

Still the storylines sometimes take the shape of a soap opera – pregnant women ignoring the advice of their obstetrician, crucial letters being lost and prospective fathers backing off from their responsibilities at the last minute. This over-dramatise the movie, making it seem more contrived and takes away some of the emotion from the story.

Despite this the movie remains a well executed introspective into maternal connection and how it can destroy as much as it creates.