When this mom raises her hand to her teenage son, even she doesn't seem to know whether that hand will land in a caress, a slap or a stranglehold. Mothers from hell have been a theatrical staple since Clytemnestra made such messes of little Electra and Orestes. And it transforms what might have been an animated case history into a far fresher study of irrevocably warped impulses. Fortunately for us, Mr. MacLachlan is more interested in his characters' attendant struggles against the urges to hurt, to destroy.
Brutality runs like a wire thread through their daily domestic fabric.
Soren feeds a stray kitten and then dashes it against a wall. Shirley, in a tickling match with Soren, suddenly hits him hard across the face. Billy, while teaching Soren how to drive, waves an instructive finger at the boy, who bites it to the bone. Billy, played with a touching, honor-bound bewilderment by Mr. Murphy, is more in control of his actions. But you can sense the clamoring demons within.