One...Two...Three!
Wasp stings right where it hurts.
The film, set in the United Kingdom and directed by Andrea Arnold, focuses on a lower-class single mother, Zoe, that is having difficulty looking after her four children while maintaining a relationship with her former beau, David.
It’s easy to leap to the conclusion that Zoe is a failure of a mother – she considers packets of sugar an acceptable food choice, and has no problems cursing at her three daughters – but underneath her tough, no-nonsense exterior, it’s easy to forget that she is not much older than the people in the class, and still very much a young adult. What she lacks in class and parenting skills, however, she makes up for in maternal instinct; when her youngest, a chubby, delightful baby boy, is in danger, she leaps into action and goes into hysterics – as any parent I know would do.
However, while the film focuses on Zoe’s attempt to be a fitting mother, she is not the one that commands the screen. It is her oldest daughter that captures the attention and sympathy of the viewer the most, for she is the most motherly of the bunch and clearly looks out for her younger siblings before herself. The youngest daughter plays at the heartstrings as well – her baby doll in her makeshift carriage eerily echo her mother’s own attempts to take care of her youngest child – and sadly, the blonde little girl is infinitely better at it than her parent.
Interlaced with dark humor and a tale that doesn’t simply rely on sympathy for the flawed nature of it’s characters, Wasp is a film that is easily worthy of it’s Oscar title.
