Hot Milk is not going to be for everyone, I want to say that immediately. It’s what I would call an arthouse film. What I mean by that is it requires some work and interpretation from the audience. A lot of it is symbolic of motherhood and womanhood. It is not a typical Hollywood style story. There are some spoilers ahead.

Hot Milk stars Fiona Shaw as Rose, the mother. Emma Mackey plays Sofia, her daughter. I trust these two actors. They are what drew me to the film. Rebecca Lenkiewicz directed the film. This is her first time as a director. She also wrote the film. She’s written many films I admire greatly, including She Said, Colette, and Disobedience.

Rose has a mysterious undiagnosed illness that prevents her from walking – most of the time. Sometimes she can walk. She claims to be in constant pain. Her 25 year old daughter Sofia has given up her pursuit of an advanced degree in anthropology to care for her mother. The relationship is pure dysfunction and unhealthy for them both.

Rose mortgages the house and they head for a clinic in Spain run by Dr. Gomez (Vincent Perez). He takes her off all her medications and pushes at her to confront her past traumas. She wants a more magical cure that doesn’t demand facing any buried secrets.

Sofia meets and falls for Ingrid (Vicky Krieps). They begin a love affair, but Ingrid continues to see Matty (Yann Gael). Sofia is emotionally immature after so long under her mother’s thumb and she doesn’t handle her jealousy over Matty well.

For all of Rose’s hidden traumas, Sofia has a few of her own. There’s her relationship with her mother, obviously. But she wonders about her father, who left them when Sofia was four years old.

Gomez pressures Sofia to deal with her own stuff and be bold enough to take care of herself instead of living for her mother. Sofia leaves Rose in Spain and goes to Greece to see her father, Christos (Vangelis Mourikis). It’s been almost 10 years since she saw him last. Christos has a young wife and a new baby daughter. His version of events with Rose is very different from Rose’s.

There are many uncomfortable scenes in this film. Sofia wants to know what secrets her mother hides so carefully. They argue about returning to England to avoid Gomez and his prodding.

It’s a turning point when Sofia sees Rose strolling easily beside the water. Sofia sets up a dramatic situation that forces Rose to either walk or stay in her wheelchair – Sofia doesn’t care which Rose chooses. The ending is open – we don’t know what Rose or Sofia will do next.

Hot Milk is based on a novel by Deborah Levy. I haven’t read the book yet, but apparently it makes heavy use of internal monologues from the characters that explain much of the emotion and turmoil they go through. I thought Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey did great work giving us background and motivation with nothing more than good acting.

The film is from Sundance Now and can be streamed on AMC+ or rented on Prime Video.