Diksha Sundriyal
Starring Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway, 2024’s ‘Mothers’ Instinct’ presents a harrowing tale of grief and loss while also portraying the spiraling mental health and relationships of two women. At the center of the story are Alice and Celine, who are neighbors and best friends. They are each other’s biggest supporters, especially in times when it feels like no one else supports them. This strong friendship feels the brunt of an unbearable tragedy when Celine’s son, Max, dies after falling from the balcony of their house. What strains things further is Celine partly blaming Max’s death on Alice and forging a bond with her son, Theo, which makes Alice uncomfortable to no end. But it’s one thing for a friendship to unravel and quite another for bodies to start dropping. SPOILERS AHEAD
Why Does Celine Kill Her Husband?
One of the things that ‘Mothers’ Instinct’ does really well is to keep the audience guessing about Celine’s true intentions. Even as Alice starts to suspect her, we can’t help but wonder if it is all inside Alice’s head, a theory backed by the fact that Alice has always been over-protective of her son, has had anxiety issues, and has been hospitalized for mental health issues before. Her husband thinks as much, and this gives a different layer to the events that unfold in the film. But then, Celine does something that proves beyond all doubt that Alice’s suspicions were never unfounded and that there has always been a foresight to Celine’s actions.
Following Max’s death, Celine latched on to the only thing that resembled her son the most: Theo. In the days following her son’s loss, she distanced herself from Alice but grew closer to Theo, who she felt was the only one to share in her loss truly. While Alice may have grown uncomfortable between Alice and Theo’s growing bond, she wasn’t the only one to think like that. Celine’s husband, Damian, also saw how desperately Celine had clawed at carving whatever role she could for herself in Theo’s life. But while she seemed to have found a replacement in Theo, her husband could never recover from the loss of his only son. He could never look at Theo and see a reflection of Max. In complete opposition to Celine, he seemed to be repulsed by Theo’s presence, and instead of welcoming him into his arms, he would flinch at his touch.
Tragedies like losing a child either bring a couple closer together or tear them apart. For Celine and Damian, the latter was true. Following their son’s death, they grew farther apart, with neither finding the comfort they could in each other’s arms. This isolation from each other increased the loneliness within them, and each tackled it in their own way. Damian took to alcohol to deal with the pain, while Celine found comfort in spending time with Theo. Damian may have entertained his wife’s way of coping in the beginning, but in the end, he tells her how unhealthy her obsession with Theo is and instructs her never to see the kid again and never bring him into their house.
By this time, Celine was made aware of how Alice and her husband were planning to move away to a different neighborhood. She was already on edge about losing Theo, and hearing her husband’s words confirmed for her that he would never support her actions. Even if she found a way to bring Theo into their lives, he would never accept the kid as his own, and this wasn’t something that Celine could work with. Having known Damian’s thoughts about her bonding with Theo, it also becomes clear to her that her husband must be removed from the equation for her plan to work.
So, after getting him drunk a bit, she renders him unconscious using chloroform, then puts him in a bathtub and slits his wrists, making it look like a suicide. She knows that no one would question the nature of his death because everyone knew his state of mind following Max’s death. His death would be a shock, but it wouldn’t be a surprise. The fact that Celine gets Damian to have a few drinks before he passes out shows that she had already made up her mind before he came back home. There was a clear distance between them by now, and even if she hadn’t found Theo, things would have been just as bad, and she would have eventually left Damian or vice versa. So that evening, when she hands a drink, and then another, to her husband the moment he comes home, it is clear that she has made up her mind about what she is going to do, and there is no stopping her.
Celine’s Actions Prove Alice’s Suspicions Right
While the film keeps us busy with Alice’s suspicions and their legitimacy, it also drops hints to show what Celine actually plans to do. It is in hindsight that when all has been said and done, one starts to see all of Celine’s actions as a calculated, premeditated move. But what exactly did she want? The simple answer is Theo. Losing Max breaks Celine’s heart, and at that time, there is only one person who seems to have the remedy for her pain. At first, she connects with Theo due to their shared love for Max, but then, the thing in her mind about blaming Alice for her son’s death also becomes a factor that pushes her to do unspeakable things.
It was clear that only a child could help Celine find meaning in her life again, and had she and her husband talked it out, they could have considered adoption. But then there was Theo. Celine felt that she had the right to take Alice’s son away from her because she had done the same with Max. But she didn’t want to take Theo away from Alice in the literal sense, at least not initially. In the beginning, she just wanted to spend more time with Theo because it actually helped her. But her grief made her an unwelcome thing around people, and Alice’s mother-in-law tells her as much. She tells Celine to stay away from Theo and the family, and this is when Celine feels threatened for the first time.
Celine fears that the grandmother might influence Alice and Simon to restrict her from seeing Theo. Worse, she fears that Theo might be influenced by his grandmother and wouldn’t want to see her anymore. This ticks off Celine, and she decides to remove the grandmother from the equation. Or so it appears to Alice, who is convinced that Celine replaced her mother-in-law’s meds with a placebo (a claim supported by the autopsy), which led to the old woman’s heart attack and death. Even though she can’t support her claim, she is unequivocal about her belief and doesn’t hesitate to call Celine out on it.
On some level, there are things that show that Celine may not have had anything to do with Alice’s mother-in-law’s death, but one can’t help but agree that her death serves Celine impeccably at the end of the movie. In fact, had she not gotten the mother-in-law out of the way, the rest of the plan wouldn’t have worked at all, and she would have lost Theo forever. Was it just good luck or an extremely well-planned plot? The film keeps things vague about it, but one can’t completely shrug off suspicion over Celine’s involvement in it.
Celine Kills Alice and Simon to Get to Theo
It is difficult to pin down when Celine decides to have Theo all for herself, but understandably, this is not what she intended in the beginning. Having lost Max, she was looking for a semblance of meaning in the world, and Theo gave her that. After spending some time away, when she comes back, she tries her best to get back into the world. Even if things are difficult for her because the wound is still so fresh, she tries to move on and be normal again. It turns out to be more difficult than she had imagined, and Theo is the only one who can make it easier.
Celine gets so attacked by Theo that any threat to their relationship is dealt with immediately. In the end, when she discovers that Alice and Simon are going to move away with Theo, she sees no other way but to kill them and have the child for herself. She clearly puts a lot of thought into this as there are too many factors to be considered, the most important among them being how she will get Theo’s custody. Being Alice’s close friend for all these years means that Celine knows exactly who will get Theo’s custody in the event of his parent’s death. It has to be an immediate relate, which is Granny Jean, who has already been dealt with.
As far as Celine knows, there is no other person close enough to Alice and Simon to come forward and agree to take their kid. Apart from relation, the court also has to consider where Theo would feel best situated and accepted. It has to be someone he knows and is comfortable with, or at least that is the priority. If nothing works out, he will be put in the system. All of this gives Celine a unique opportunity as not only is she friends and neighbors with Alice and Simon, but she also has a great relationship with Theo. If asked whether he would like to live with Celine, there is a greater chance he will say yes, all thanks to the time they spent together, helping each other through their grief.
Perhaps it would have never come to this. Perhaps Celine would have been happy simply being close to Theo. Things between her and Alice had also improved since Theo’s intervention, so it made sense that she would want things to stay that way. Perhaps, if Alice hadn’t told her they were moving soon, Celine wouldn’t have felt compelled to act. She knew that her pleas would never work, and Alice might even feel compelled to have the law involved, and then, things would truly be out of Celine’s hands, and Theo would be lost forever. But with Granny Jean gone, she had a singular opportunity to have things her own way, and she was ready to do whatever it took.
After Damian’s death, Celine is taken to Alice and Simon’s house, where she renders Theo unconscious with chloroform and Simon with his drink. After a bit of a struggle, she does the same with Alice, who has realized what she is trying to do. Right before she falls unconscious, Alice has all her suspicions and her worst fears come true, but it is too late. There is nothing she can do about it, and as she slips into a deep sleep, Celine stages her and Simon’s deaths to make it look like an accident. Once the heat dies down, Celine sees her opportunity and adopts Theo, who doesn’t blink twice before accepting a new life with her.
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