SMALL, BEAUTIFUL MOVING PARTS

Is actually a small beautiful movie even though it is essential not about a great deal. Sarah is a woman with an insatiable desire for tinkering with all manner of things driven by technology : its not just her job but also her passion. When one such gadget is a tiny pregnancy tester that turns positive when she uses it, her husband is excited about being a parent, whilst Sarah is more impressed with the workings of the instrument that bears the news.

Her pregnancy unbalances her somewhat and she accepts her sister’s invitation to throw her a baby shower back home in California. The party full of mothers and delightful screaming brats sends her into a panic as to what she has let herself in for. She wants to seek some advice from her mother, but since they have been estranged for some years now, the mother has retreated more from her and the world in general. Sarah is however desperate enough to want to get some answers about motherhood in general and her chances of succeeding in particular, and goes on a road trip to track her mother down in the wilds of the Arizona desert.

The movie is a tad too long, has a very simple and somewhat predictable plot but it’s made very watchable by the totally enchanting central performance of Anne Margaret Hollyman as an immensely believable Sarah.

It’s an unpretentious wee movie that doesn’t attempt any great moral debate about the joys (or not) of parenthood but simply to be entertained by one potential mother who may have preferred getting a new computer rather than a child!

★★★★★★★