The Perfect Mother, or Une mère parfaite, is a French drama-thriller series directed by Frédéric Garson and stars Julie Gayet, Andreas Pietschmann, Eden Ducourant and Maxim Driesen, alongside other cast members. The series has 4 episodes, each with a runtime of around 50 minutes.
Netflix describes the series as:
Convinced of her daughter’s innocence in a homicide, a devoted mother soon uncovers unsettling truths as the line between victim and perpetrator blurs.
– The Perfect Mother review does not contain spoilers –
The Perfected Mother starts off with a disoriented Anya stumbling out of a crime scene, us getting to know her family situation, getting a rundown of her version of the story and getting a delicious story that creates a world where you want Anya to get out. And then the evidence picking apart Anya’s story start coming in. At first, it’s something minor, something that can have another option. But pretty soon things start spiralling out of control – is Anya truly innocent? Or is there something more sinister behind her naïve exterior?
Navigating the crime-thriller genre is difficult and too easy to fall down a familiar rabbit hole. There are traces of that in this series – the parents don’t listen to the brother, the hints of lingering feelings between Helene and her lawyer ex and a secret life that no one knows about. The first two are annoying, the third is less annoying and more shocking. It’s an execution game with these shows and The Perfect Mother does a great job building the scene and holding on to the suspense for a greater part of the runtime.
Quickly into the second episode, you realise that the story is not as simple as you think. Through shaky camerawork, the series gives us a glimpse of the chaos surrounding Anya’s story, Helene’s desperation and the murder itself. The series is sometimes a bit sluggish as it investigates the truth behind a murky situation, but most of the time it’s quite fast-paced and gives us different sides of the situations and the people involved.
What I mean to say is, The Perfect Mother is also about Anya’s family and friends and what they go through as they, too, come to terms with such a horrible situation. At front and centre is Helene, who goes to excrutiating lengths to prove her daughter’s innocence as only a parent can. However, there’s also the father and the brother who are unable to be there for her but feel the ramifications of such a huge incident. It’s interesting watching them come to terms with every new piece of information and process it individually as well as a family.
But the most interesting part of this twisty tale is Anya. Everything starts with her and comes to an end with her – she’s the hero and the villain and her shadowy life, hidden away from her family, feels like straight out of a storybook, too good to be real. But honestly, Amanda Knox would tell you that stranger things have happened. Regardless, when things seem to look better for Anya, the audience starts to question her. We see things Helene doesn’t, we have more information than her – it makes us more prone to ask questions when Anya does things that don’t really click.
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You wonder whether Anya is telling the truth, is she really the victim here? Then what’s with the shadowy nature of her life? It’s an interesting puzzle to solve for 4 episodes. Coming to that, Anya’s story starts to fall apart after the third episode. As more and more secrets come out, you start to lose sympathy for Anya, if for nothing then for the constant lying. She’s an extremely unreliable narrator, one that is too young to know the ramifications of her decisions.
It’s an important point that the series makes – teens on the cusp of adulthood often think that they know everything about the world. That love is greater than all and can. Unfortunately, the series really becomes a soapy melodrama by the end of it. You sympathise with no one and just want to whack some sense into Anya for taking such a huge decision on a whim. But then again, it’s the age to get into trouble.
The last bit adds dimension to a story that almost ended too easily. Anya’s penance for going the extra mile thanks to her past is both pitiful and deeply disturbing. When the entire truth comes out, it’s a whole host of emotions that bubble just on the surface – the series is over but you know that the journey starts for these characters. Getting out of the sticky situation is sometimes only the beginning, living with your choices is the hard part.
Summing up: The Perfect Mother
The Perfect Mother is a worthwhile watch with several twists and turns throughout its 4-episode runtime. Although it drags sometimes and you are honestly annoyed with these characters and with their decisions (no one ever answers their phones, as usual), it still creates a gripping atmosphere from where escape seems bleak. We never know the truth from Anya herself, but that’s a mystery we’ll have to live in. The series is short enough to not get on your nerves and is a good watch if you’re in the mood for some French thrills.
The Perfect Mother, or Une mère parfaite, is streaming on Netflix.
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