In this conception of the “mother,” we see from the very start of the film that Beverly engages in the compulsive-we might say “serial”-repetition of these qualities and acts of oppressive wife-and-mothering. Beverly is all this and more, particularly in Turner’s performance, infused with significant wit and dynamism considering the over-the-top, on-the-nose script typical of Waters’ work, which deliberately satirizes with the heaviest of hands. And she’s no doubt concerned more with appearances (chief among them her own) than the reality underneath.
She’s loving but stern, prim but warm, alluring but chaste, classic but timeless. She’s devoted to her husband and kids, an upstanding community stalwart, a staunch policer of respectability, and definitely not employed outside the home.
As the story goes, the white middle-class suburban matriarch is kempt, efficient, upright, proper, clean, perfect, and pretty damn judgmental.
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Some folks, however, didn’t seem to get the joke: “I am not sure why this isn’t very funny, but it’s not,” wrote Roger Ebert in his review of the film. So, then, what’s the source of the humour that Ebert and others (he’s not the only one) seem to have missed? A woman’s work is never doneįirst, let’s qualify “mom.” More than simply referring to a female-identified human who bears children, the term is especially prone to its broadest patriarchal, capitalist conception in Serial Mom. Even after she gets caught and tried in court, she continues to kill with abandon, throwing shade at a corrupt, media-thirsty justice system whose authority she refuses to recognize, firing her lawyer and defending herself with the confidence and manipulative charm of a quintessential sociopath. Beverly’s engagement in recreational murder as a corrective action meant to uphold certain ideals of propriety and respectability is comically incessant and prolific. Beverly runs over her son’s math teacher with her car after the teenager (Matthew Lillard) receives a less-than-stellar grade she stabs a studly teen bro who slights her swooning, boy-crazy daughter (Ricki Lake) she bludgeons to death a neighbour who returns rented videocassettes without rewinding them and offs another who refuses to recycle-and that’s just a few of her victims. The satire is handled skilfully and at no point threatens to overwhelm what is essentially a very black comedy.Opening on a sunlit suburban breakfast table surrounded by a stereotypical white middle-class family, John Waters’ Serial Mom (1994) proceeds to unrelentingly and hilariously skewer small-town community “values” through the story of Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner), a smiling, stoic, and devoted wife and mother who dabbles in serial murder on the side. Waters perfectly captures the essence of middle class, small town America, where the sun always shines and the gardens are immaculate. Waters regular Ricki Lake also puts in an appearance as the jilted daughter, completing a cast of excellent if little known performers. Kathleen Turner clearly relishes the role of the charming psychopath and she is well supported by Waterstone's dithering wimp of a husband.
Silmilar to Oliver Stone's not yet released Natural Born Killers, Waters is satirising a media that turns criminals into heroes, a subject that has become even more topical in the light of recent events.
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As you may have guessed this is not your average murder thriller, Sutphin becomes a media sweetheart, complete with movie deals and her face on every tabloid cover in the country. Sutphin is a stickler for tradition, cooks perfect meatloaf and always recycles, she also just happens to commit the odd murder! Woe betide anyone who irritates this lady, as Sutphin does away with unfaithful boyfriends, concerned teachers and anyone else who just happens to get in the way.
Turner is loving housewife Beverly Sutphin, dedicated to her dentist husband (Sam Waterstone) and two children. However, fans of Waters' twisted sense of humour have no reason to despair, this film is as warped as any of his previous endeavours and it features a star turn from Kathleen Turner as the eponymous er. John (II) Waters the king of cinema weird finally went mainstream last year with Serial Mom.
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