I Remember Mama (1948)

It's too bad my mom didn't come when my dad and I saw this in a theater. Few movies in any era have more female major characters than male, breezing thru the Bechdel Test. And few of those are also this good.

The title is a little curious, as "Mama" (Irene Dunne) is still very much alive and living with the narrator, Katrin (Barbara Bel Geddes), at the time of the narration. It hasn't even been more than a few years since the 1910 events in question, when Katrin was in her teens. Also strange is that Wikipedia, before my last edit at least, classified the film as a comedy. It has quaintly funny moments, such as dubbing a tomcat "Uncle Elizabeth" to accommodate stubborn youngest sister Dagmar, but I'd call it a "comedy" only in the old-fashioned sense of The Divine Comedy. It's more of a heartwarming melodrama.

The first scene within the narration shows the family of six, whose adults audibly came from Norway, carefully accounting for all their expenditures down to the last dime. Mama's relief at not having to go to the bank hints at what kind of trouble they could be in. They do have pretty frequent contact with extended family -- indeed, that was their reason for moving to San Francisco -- but two aunts are biddies, the other is meek and poor, and the decently wealthy Uncle Chris's boisterous personality intimidates most relatives more than it ought. And the one household tenant never pays in money.

...Instead, he pays by reading and eventually leaving behind classic literature. It inspires Katrin to become a writer herself, hence the narration. Her passion for it affects the plot only toward the end, when she's had time to submit something for publication -- a process as frustrating as I expected.

Speaking of passion, I should mention that middle sister Christine repeatedly calls Katrin dramatic. That's true enough, altho Christine provides the starkest contrast. Mama stands out as "the practical one" for the most part, but she gets quite dramatic in her own right, as when she can't stand to follow contemporary hospital rules and part with Dagmar for 24 hours.

(Kudos to Katrin for not focusing only on events that concerned herself directly. There's even a subplot about the meek aunt preparing to marry a similarly meek man, played by a strangely puppetless Edgar Bergen.)

If there's an overarching theme to this story, it's that Mama serves as the heart of the whole family. She tries to maintain a positive outlook and will do almost anything to maximize her children's happiness, including mild dishonesty. There seems to be nothing she can't accomplish either on her own or by lending strength to another, except for that pie in the sky of buying herself a nice coat.

The 134-minute plot moves rather slowly even for an oldie. Nevertheless, I never found myself checking my watch. If you can take some exaggerated ups and downs, as I can, it's pleasant enough to justify a ritzy theater ticket.