Sydney Pollack was quoted as saying, “There’s no question that a great script is absolutely essential, maybe the essential thing for a movie to succeed.” He’d know, considering he directed films like Tootsie, produced films like Michael Clayton, and acted in films like Changing Lanes. All films that, while they might not be unimpeachable masterpieces, are made with a high degree of quality and care.

Those films I just mentioned enjoy a solid reputation due to the strength of their screenplays. And you know what? Screenwriting is hard. It’s hard because you need interesting characters that are challenged and make choices that push the narrative forward. You need to understand pacing, and when to begin and end a scene. You need to know that having a good idea for a movie doesn’t really matter. Executing that idea is what counts. To do all of that, well, think of it like this – somewhere in the neighborhood of one percent of screenwriters reach a point where they can make a living at it.* 

Screenwriting is so friggin’ hard that everyone gets tripped up by it. Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, Nora Ephron, everybody. If the best of the best can have a tough time, then anyone can. That’s what I kept thinking as I watched A Mother’s Hope, the directorial debut of indie writer/director Bo Harris. 

We’re introduced to the Alexanders, a comfortably upper-middle class Black family. There’s Camiel (Sharonne Lanier), the matriarch of the family. She’s smart, thoughtful, and understands their shared prosperity comes from hard work and a multitude of blessings. But she has vague and mysterious dreams that hint at danger. Her husband Daniel (Anthony Brown) urges her to relax. They’re just dreams, right?

Their daughter Tiya (Courtney Cole) is away at college. She feels adrift, disconnected, and she misses the comfort and camaraderie of home. Their son Jacob (Preston Harvey) is in a very different situation. He’s a high school senior who’s the embodiment of the scholar/athlete. Jake studies hard, gets good grades, and is thoughtful. He’s also a highly skilled basketball player, and colleges are positively breaking down the front door to recruit him. 

All is not peaches and cream for Jake, though. His best friend Miya (Hope Baxter) nurses a crush on him, and he on her. Their history prevents them from taking things to the next level, as do the machiavellian mean girl schemes of Angel (Leilani Williams), who views Jake as her meal ticket. On top of all that is Jake’s cautious friendship with Junior (Johnathan Felder), a young man on the edge of a life of crime. It all culminates in a mistake from one person, and a decision from another.

If you watch enough short films and debut features, pretty soon you see who has promise and who’s destined to be a one-hit wonder. Director Bo Harris definitely has promise, despite dealing with a miniscule $75,000 budget and, presumably, a host of technical challenges. A Mother’s Hope has a few moments where the sound mix is screwy, meaning that while the background music level is too loud, the dialogue level for the actors is too soft. There are also moments where the camera just sits there, static, and slightly more dynamic cinematography would have boosted the energy level.

Harris’ screenplay could have used another serious pass. As is, it has a couple of large problems. The first is that nearly every scene runs far too long, and that decision bogs down the pacing. Along similar lines, a number of the subplots, such as the subplot involving Tiya coming home from an out of state college and restarting her life, aren’t necessary. I think Harris loves both these characters and the actors that portray them. I get that, but the fact is that the lack of ruthless cutting creates a nearly two hour runtime without properly justifying it. On top of that is the script’s protagonist problem. There seem to be two protagonists, Camiel and Jake. Yet multiple times, both characters are passive, and they’re dragged by the script instead of actively pushing the narrative forward. Plus, their individual stories should inform and affect each other. They don’t until about an hour and twenty minutes in. That’s a problem considering the film’s entire runtime is an hour and fifty-seven minutes.

Having said all that, when the film works, it works. Two of Harris’ most effective assets are the performance by Sharonne Lanier as Camiel and Preston Harvey as Jake. Lanier is a completely unselfconscious actor. She effectively lets us inside Camiel and shows us her strength, her love, and her grief. It’s a performance of considerable focus and intensity. Harvey, on the other hand, plays Jake as a laid-back young man. He’s got an easy charisma, yet he’s no pushover as a performer. The two of them are well-served by Harris’ rock-solid understanding of family dynamics. You’ve seen movies and thought, “Wait, these people cannot possibly be related.” Harris understands that criticism, and went out of his way to portray the Alexander family as…well, a family. He does that in a positive light, and while these people may squabble and get in their own way occasionally, they’re ultimately there for one another. That focus on characterization and impossible-to-fake heart went a long way toward balancing out the criticisms I had. 

I’ve said ad infinitum that two things can be true at the same time. The first is that A Mother’s Hope doesn’t really work as a film. The second is that Bo Harris shows real long-term promise as a writer and director. Maybe I’m wrong, but I have a feeling that he had a narrow window to shoot, and he chose to take it despite the script not being ready.** Whatever his sophomore project is, I hope he has the time, space, and support system to make his next screenplay as tight as a drum. If he can do that, and I think he can, he should be setting himself up for an interesting career.

*People have long compared that to the difficulty of becoming an NFL player. Maybe so, but it’s possible for a screenwriter to break in when they’ve gotten older. Not a lot of guys in their fifties are getting signed to the Broncos. 

**You could say the same thing about at least a third of the movies in the MCU.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.