Anna Hathaway and Jessica Chastain agonize and plot as otherwise immaculate suburban wives in the trailer for Mother’s Instinct, a 1960s-set costumed drama helmed and shot by veteran cinematographer Benoit Delhomme.
Chastain and Hathaway play Alice and Celine — two 1960s housewives, best friends and next-door neighbors — who live an apparently idyllic, traditional lifestyle with manicured lawns, successful husbands and sons of the same age. But a tragic accident involving one of their sons accidentally falling out of a second floor window as a helpless Alice looks on shatters the perfect harmony of their lives, and the besties are suddenly torn apart as guilt, suspicion and paranoia comes between them.
“Something is broken inside of me, and I need you,” Celine asks Alice at one point in the trailer. Mother’s Instinct, with the look and feel of a Alfred Hitchcock thriller, has the two women battling in a cat-and-mouse game where their sisterly bond unravels and the darker side of their maternal instincts runs riot — even as their designer homes and gowns and coiffed hairdos continue to impress.
“Did you put Theo on that balcony to test me,” Alice asks Celine accusingly, only for Hathaway’s shattered character to reply: “Do you think I’m capable of that?”
Neon’s remake of the 2018 Belgium film Duelles as a retro thriller is financed by Anton. Hathaway and Chastain act as producers on the film together with partner Kelly Carmichael under Chastain’s Freckle Films banner.
Mother’s Instinct opens in select theaters July 26 and on digital Aug. 13.
