Entertainment

Anne Hathaway & Jessica Chastain join forces in thriller, ‘Mother’s Instinct’

Terrifying and twisted.
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Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, two of Hollywood’s biggest actresses, have teamed up in an intense new film.

Mother’s Instinct is a psychological thriller certainly not created for the faint-hearted…

Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain in Mother's Instinct.
(Image: Prime Video)

Set in the 1960s in suburban America, Mother’s Instinct follows two housewives and next-door neighbours, Alice (Jessica Chastain, 47) and Celine (Anne Hathaway, 41), who each have sons who are around the same age as one another.

As the official synopsis reads, “After a tragic accident, the long-standing friendship of two women is torn apart by paranoia. Amid pain, guilt and secrets, a psychological battle reveals the darker side of the maternal instinct.”

The film is a terrifying and twisted portrayal of the book, also titled Mother’s Instinct by the same name written by author Barbara Abel, who also acted as a screenwriter on the project.

Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain in Mother's Instinct.
(Image: Prime Video)

Starring alongside Hathaway and Chastain are Anders Danielsen Lie, Josh Charles, Eamon O’Connell, Caroline Lagerfelt and Bayden D. Bielitz.

Mother’s Instinct is directed by Frenchman Benoît Delhomme in his directorial debut, and the film is a recreation of Olivier Masset-Depasse’s 2018 French rendition.

This isn’t the first project we’ve seen the Hollywood stars collaborate with Delhomme, who praised the pair to A Rabbits Foot.

“What they brought was so beautiful, and their chemistry was so good,” he said.

“Anne and Jessica, I didn’t try to redirect them. I was observing them. I wanted to give them freedom to express the characters they had built in their head.”

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Both Hathaway and Chastain have spoken about the heaviness of the movie, with the former telling Sky News, “It was one of those jobs you really, really didn’t want to take home with you.”

Meanwhile, Chastain has shared about her process of getting into character, saying she spent time “trying to connect to something outside of [her]self.”

The 47-year-old told Glamour, “For my character, really, it was an exploration not only in motherhood, but of anxiety.

“She faces a lot of restrictions and pushback against the woman she longs to be, and I feel quite different in my life.”

Mother’s Instinct is available to watch on Prime Video in Australia.

Stream Mother’s Instinct on Prime Video from $6.58/mth, with a 30-day free trial. Subscribe now.

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