‘Trading Mom’: A Delightful Debut Filled With Love

When writer-director Tia Brelis was growing up she was beguiled by a story her mother Nancy told her over and over called “The Mommy Market.” Subsequently, her mother published it as a novel; no wonder Brelis chose to adapt it as her debut feature under the title “Trading Mom.”

It’s a charmer, about three children (Anna Chlumsky, Aaron Michael Metchik and Asher Metchik), fed up with their harried single mother (Sissy Spacek) and dreaming of trading her in for a more amenable model. When they confide their feelings to a neighbor lady (Maureen Stapleton), devoted to caring for her vast and beautiful untrammeled garden, she astounds them by revealing that via some hocus-pocus they can make their mother disappear but at the cost of erasing all memories of her. She then tells them of a bazaar, the Mommy Market, where they can pick out a new mother. The droll, captivating Stapleton is of course actually giving them a chance to learn to appreciate their mother as they never have before.

Filmed in and around Richmond, Va., “Trading Mom” has a lovely, shimmering look to it, and it affords Spacek a comical tour de force as all three mothers the kids try out. They are a rich, glamorous Frenchwoman who is interested only in the children’s appearances; a hearty, outdoorsy Britisher who can cook the pancakes the kids crave as daily fare but who takes their sports activities so seriously she’s only interested in their winning; and finally the deceptively sweet Russian circus juggler who takes her show-must-go-on belief all too literally.

Brelis brings to her film an appropriately lyrical quality to the telling of her mother’s fairy tale, and elicits enchanting portrayals from her cast. “Trading Mom” is largely given over to fantasy, but the magic spell it casts is real.

* MPAA rating: PG, for some barnyard humor. Times guidelines: It is truly a family film, appropriate for all ages. ‘Trading Mom’

Sissy Spacek: Mommy, Mama, Mom, Natasha

Elizabeth: Anna Chlumsky

Aaron Michael Metchik: Jeremy

Asher Metchik: Harry

Maureen Stapleton: Mrs. Cavour

A Trimark presentation. Writer-director Tia Brelis. Based on the novel “The Mommy Market” by Nancy Brelis. Producer Rafaella De Laurentiis. Executive producer Robert Little. Cinematographer Buzz Feitshans IV. Editor Isaac Sehayek. Music David Kitay. Production designer Cynthia Charette. Set decorator and landscape artist Lisa Caperton. Running time: 1 hour, 21 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.