I like to review movies based on what they are and not what I want them to be or hoped for them to be. The Mattamachine Family, while not entirely unenjoyable due to the cast which did an adequate job. The story itself leaves a lot to be desired. The movie tries to tackle the important and interesting theme about the ways in which queer people can have families, children and how fulfilling such families are, regardless of how they get there (be it IVF, adoption, foster care). At the end of the movie, you are left wondering exactly what the movie was about and what the point of it was, because it doesn’t say much and you are left feeling like you just overheard a story from someone who was being too loud on the train.

The Mattamachine Family follows the story of Oscar (Juan Pablo Di Pace) and Thomas (Nico Tortorella) who are seemingly happily married until after their foster child they have stayed with for a year, is taken back by his mother who has managed to turn her life around. The separation from their foster child leads Oscar and Thomas on two different journeys. Oscar becomes withdrawn as he chooses to focus on his career and does not want to be a father again, whilst Thomas goes through the stages of grief, from not wanting to experience that pain again, to wanting vehemently to be a father. The two aren’t together to process the separation from their foster child, with Thomas having to deal with it alone since Oscar is away filming a tv show.

As he processes his grief, Thomas decides that he wants to be a father again despite him and Oscar having decided that they wouldn’t go through that process again. While Oscar is away, Thomas finds comfort in his group of other queer friends who are close to him, with the lesbian couple also undergoing their own fertility problems and wanting a child of their own. If the movie wanted to make sense, I would have preferred that it be about their friend group, how they supported the couple that wanted to have a child and through that journey rediscovered what it means to have children and decide to be parents once again. The gay and lesbian family who shared a child was also an interesting family dynamic that shows how different families are and can be. We unfortunately had to view these families through Thomas’ anxious point of view, which made the movie unsettling. We couldn’t even be happy for the foster child who was able to go back to living with his mother, or the mother for taking control of her life and managing to re-gain custody of her child.

It’s very unclear what the real contention in this movie really is. It is not clearly fleshed out how Oscar goes from wanting children to having an outright no kids policy because their foster child went back to his mother. The writers of the movie seem to have an internal fear that isn’t quite portrayed in the movie and are working on the premise that everyone shares this fear, which I am unclear what the fear is. Could be the fear of abandonment? While separated from Oscar, as they reached an impasse over the issue of having a child, Thomas manages to adopt a child. Thomas needs counselling and therapy and the social worker who sped him through the process of getting the child is extremely careless for allowing him to have the child at that stage.

I believe they made the wrong movie, and the ensemble would have made a great queer buddy movie about family if they had kept the premises simple. Thomas’ character was so bland, it didn’t take us anywhere and it did not serve the movie well, despite the actor trying to not make him unbearable. This was a strange movie; it wants to make you think and when you ask it “think about what?” it just shrugs and rolls credits.

Rating- 3 out of 5