‘Amy Adams’ Nightbitch is the feral examination of motherhood we need’

In Nightbitch Amy Adams' Mother finds herself being given a new calling, a new pack as it were, when she begins to transform into a dog — yes, really.

Marielle Heller's adaptation of Rachel Yoder's novel is a rare exploration of motherhood in unapologetic detail, it refuses to shy away from the difficulties and pressures that women experience on a daily basis. The film is anchored by a no-holds-barred performance from Adams, who fully embodies the raw vulnerability needed to bring her character's struggle to the forefront.

So why the transformation into a dog? Well it represents a few things but namely the way in which motherhood changes a woman from the person she was to the one she becomes after giving birth, and the internal struggle women often have at the prospect of losing themselves in the process.

This is beautifully illustrated in a gripping monologue from Adams, when at a dinner party with college friends Mother begins to talk to herself of the ways in which her experience with her son —also simply referred to as Son— is both a rewarding and exhausting experience.

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Before having a child Mother was a promising artist, but now she finds she uses all her energy on her toddler and is so depleted by the end of a day that she has none to give to her creative pursuits. She also points the hypocrisy of society pressuring women into having children only to dismiss and belittle them afterwards.

Her friends, who either don't have children or have help from nannies to look after them, find it difficult to understand this, and have lost interest in her as a person now she's become a mother. It's a scene that perfectly encapsulates the fear of losing oneself after giving birth and how people's perceptions of a woman can change once they become a mother.

In fact that notion is why Mother is never named, society doesn't see her as anything beyond that and so she has begun to internalise it too.

As a woman of a certain age the amount of people to ask me when I'm having children has increased exponentially, and while I'm sure they have good intentions all it does is add to the weight of expectation. It is frustrating really, what business is it of anyone else whether or not I have children?

But the one thing I find difficult to admit to these people is the fear that comes with the idea of losing oneself in the process of becoming a mother. This is why I felt so moved by Nightbitch and its fearlessness in examining this notion further.

It seems to be an experience that women all too often go through silently, so to have it thrust in your face in the way it is in Nightbitch felt almost freeing — like we can finally talk about it.

Watch: Trailer for Nightbitch

Nightbitch is the feral examination of motherhood we need, one that isn't afraid to ask the hard questions and expose exactly how much women do as mothers with little to no thanks for it.

Take Mother's experience compared to Husband (Scoot McNairy), who spends weeks at a time away from the family home for work and, when he returns, finds it difficult to empathise with Mother or accept the ways she's changed since having their son. It's only when Husband is forced to experience what his wife goes through everyday that he begins to understand how being a mother has taken priority over everything else, even self-care.

Ultimately Mother deserves to find a way to return to herself too, and that's a moving message to bring across to viewers.

Nightbitch is out now in cinemas.