If we’re to believe the DVD box art, “The Bad Mother’s Handbook” will give the boy-crazy fans of dreamy “Twilight” vampire Robert Pattinson a lingering look at his dreamy face.

Alas, this is sleight of hand.

In all but his final scene, Pattinson is wearing glasses that Michael Caine would laugh at, and straggly hair covers his eyes. Playing a socially awkward transfer student, Pattinson is constantly looking at the floor to boot. His supporting role deserves, at best, fourth-billing.
The pleasant surprise is that this 2007 British TV movie — obviously released on DVD here to cash in on Pattinsonmania — is funny, dramatic, well-written and watchable.

The film belongs to three characters. Karen (Catherine Tate) is a single mom who has had it up to here with submerging her needs and identity to care for her ailing and increasingly absent-minded mother, Nan (Anne Reid), not to mention her bratty teenage daughter, Charlotte (Holly Grainger).

Pattinson is quite good as a boy from an upper-class family who falls for lower-class Charlotte, helping her through the pregancy with advice on the right kind of desserts. (Soft ice cream from a truck is a no-no.)
DVD extras include the U.S. trailer, which makes “The Bad Mother’s Handbook” seem like an “American Pie” sequel. Subtitles will help you decipher all of that British slang. (Hint: “Summat” means “something.”)

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.