By: Tye Richmond
As we all know this weekend on Sunday is a special day for a lot of mothers out there because it is Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day is a time-honored tradition of recognizing the women in our lives who raised us, dried our tears, and well, mothered us. Everyone has one or has someone who is like a mother to them. On the second Sunday of May, we honor those women who are our mothers. Whether we shower her with gifts, take her to a fancy dinner or make her a homemade card, what moms want most is to be surrounded by the love of their family. Knowing the people, they love are safe, sound, and healthy is a mom’s number one priority.
Here is a little history breakdown of Mother’s Day from history.com, “In 1905, Anna Jarvis, the daughter of Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis successfully introduced the idea of a national holiday recognizing mothers. Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis had followed Howe’s campaign and had pursued her own volunteer efforts during the Civil War.
Ann Marie died on May 9, 1905, and her daughter, Anna, missed her mother greatly. She started a dedicated letter-writing campaign to declare an official Mother’s Day. Through Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, the first observance occurred on May 10, 1908.
This day, to honor Anna Jarvis’s mother, grew into a national observance until in 1911 when every state participated. Soon it was spreading internationally, and on May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother’s Day a national holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May.”
So, because it is mother’s day, and if you haven’t already known by now, I like to-do lists so here is just a shortlist (only 2) of Mother’s Day movies that I enjoyed growing up.
The first movie is The Blind Side, The Blind Side is a 2009 American biographical sports drama film written and directed by John Lee Hancock. Based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis, the film tells the story of Michael Oher, an American football offensive lineman who overcame an impoverished upbringing to play in the National Football League (NFL) with the help of his adoptive parents Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy. It stars Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy, and Quinton Aaron as Oher.
The film was a commercial success, grossing $309 million on a $29 million budget. Despite mixed reviews from critics, Bullock’s performance was universally praised, leading to her winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. Bullock also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. The film also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The second movie is Freak Friday, Freaky Friday is a 2003 American fantasy-comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon, based on Mary Rodgers’s 1972 novel of the same name. It stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as a mother and daughter, respectively, whose bodies are switched by a mysterious and magical Chinese fortune cookie.
The film was released in theaters on August 6, 2003, by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Pictures. The film received largely positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances (particularly that of Curtis and Lohan), but criticized the transformation scene. The film was also a commercial success, grossing over $160 million worldwide on a $26 million budget. The film also earned Curtis a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. It was Disney’s third film adaptation of the novel, after the 1976 film, starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster, and the 1995 made-for-TV film, starring Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann.
These movies aren’t cinema classics but they are good fun-loving movies about how special mothers are and that is why I enjoy them. So, for Sunday make mother’s day special even if you can’t get her a gift you can always give her time.
