Anne Dorval makes a mother’s anger complicated, letting worry and humour survive the arguments. Her performance in Mommy is reason enough to watch, though Xavier Dolan gives the shouting more time than it needs.
Fi1m perspective
In Mommy (2014), Anne Dorval looks afraid for her son even while she is furious with him. As Diane ‘Die’ Després, she makes the anger change from impatience to self-defence to the effort of managing a teenager who can be affectionate and violent. We were moved by that worry in her face during the arguments: caring for him has not stopped just because her patience has gone. Her humour also gives Die something to offer beyond another account of her difficulties. We can want her company without pretending she would be easy to live with.
That humour belongs to a substantial part of Dorval’s work outside these family dramas. She had already built a career in Quebec television before her collaboration with Dolan began with I Killed My Mother (2009). The soap-opera parody of Le cœur a ses raisons (2005–07) puts her comic timing to more overt use. It is worth remembering that background when watching Die, whose humour keeps hardship from becoming the only subject of her scenes.
Her partnership with Dolan runs through five features, including Laurence Anyways (2012) and Matthias & Maxime (2019). Mommy brought wider international notice, and her profile outside Quebec remains closely tied to his films. The repeated casting as abrasive mothers makes sense, given how readily she can make such a woman sympathetic without smoothing away her faults. In Die, the wish to protect her son has to compete with the need to keep some life for herself.
Dolan is also responsible for the main reservation we have about Mommy: he keeps scenes going after the arguments have become tiring. Its 138 minutes ask more of the shouting than even Dorval’s variety can sustain. The three lead performances remain worth that patience, with Dorval giving us particular reason to care about a woman whose temper could so easily put us off. Start with Mommy, but save it for an evening when you can bear the raised voices.
Biography
Anne Dorval is a Canadian actress born on 8 November 1960 in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. She trained at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal, graduating in 1983, and made her professional stage debut in 1985 as Aurore in Aurore, l’enfant martyre.
She is known for her frequent collaborations with director Xavier Dolan, appearing in I Killed My Mother (2009), Heartbeats (2010), Laurence Anyways (2012), Mommy (2014) as Diane 'Die' Després, and Matthias & Maxime (2019). Dorval has also worked extensively in Quebec television, including series such as Chambres en ville and Le Cœur a ses raisons, and is a prominent voice artist for dubbing English-language films into French.
