The Bad Mother's Handbook (2007)

Karen Cooper wants to domineer her family and believes she's its pillar. In fact she does everything wrong. Thus she messes up all their lives and futures, rather then help her loved-ones.

Director:

Robin Sheppard

Writers:

Kate Long (novel), Kate Long (screenplay)

Stars:

Catherine Tate, Anne Reid, Holliday Grainger

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Catherine Tate	...	Karen Cooper
Anne Reid	...	Nancy Hesketh
Holliday Grainger	...	Charlie Cooper (as Holly Grainger)
Steve John Shepherd	...	Steve Cooper
Steve Pemberton	...	Leo Fairbrother
Robert Pattinson	...	Daniel Gale
Maggie Ollerenshaw	...	Jessie Pilkington
Oliver Lee	...	Paul Benthem
Clare McGlinn	...	Advisor Jo-Beth
Angela Murray	...	Adviser Annie
Pip Torrens	...	Doctor Gale
Caroline Harding	...	Sandra Gale
Kirsty Leigh Porter	...	Anya (as Kirsty L. Porter)
Natascha Edwards	...	Julie
Martin Reeve	...	Consultant

Storyline

Daniel (Robert Pattinson) has been spending a lot of time with his crush, Charlotte, who has just learned she is pregnant. Daniel helps Charlotte with her pregnancy struggles and finds himself on a memorable 9-month journey with three independent, outspoken women. Through the tears, laughter and love this dysfunctional family find a way to sticks it out together.

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Plot Keywords:

based on novel | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language, thematic elements and some smoking

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 February 2007 (UK)

Also Known As:

Das Handbuch für Rabenmütter

Filming Locations:

West Yorkshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£2,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ingenious Broadcasting, Ruby Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

71 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Karen Cooper: Surely you didn't get an A in doing what your damn well told!

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Connections

Version of Bad Mother's Handbook (2008)

User Reviews

Bad mother and daughter film

Karen (Catherine Tate) is basically having what you would call a mid-life crisis. Her mother is turning senile and her daughter is behaving like most teenage daughters do. She's living her life straight out of "The Bad Mother's Handbook".

The title is half accurate, but it should also be "The Bad Daughter's Handbook". Mother and daughter are very selfish, rude and inconsiderate people. As the title suggests, they behave badly. So I guess I should have known what I was getting myself into, but this is only a drama, not a comedy. None of their "bad behaviour" played out for laughs. We were apparently supposed to care for these people. But the only people I cared for were the supporting characters that the mother and daughter treated badly. And they don't just treat other people badly, they treat each other badly. It's just a whole lot of unhappiness for a sense of self-importance and self-gain.

The other "rave" reviews praised Catherine Tate's performance and how good of a made-for-TV movie this is. Those points are accurate; Tate played the "bad mother" exceptionally well, and the film as a whole played out with much more emotion than most made-for-TV movies do. I just think the film should be rated on more points than just that. If you like the idea of the title "The Bad Mother's Handbook" played out very slowly with drama instead of comedy, and you like watching selfish characters live their self-important lives, then you just might like this film. But for everybody else, tell your mother you love her, and don't watch this.