‘Mother’

In the title role of Albert Brooks’ 1996 picture, Debbie Reynolds returns to the screen triumphantly in a major role for the first time in 27 years. Brooks, who wrote his script with Monica Johnson, casts himself as an L.A.-based science-fiction novelist, John Henderson, who’s just gone through his second divorce and is beginning to suspect that there’s a connection between his distant relationship with his mother and his failures with women. What to do but hit the road and return home to his widowed mother, Beatrice (Reynolds), at her comfortable family home in Marin County? Pretty, 60-plus Beatrice seems glad enough to see her son but is taken aback at his determination to reconstruct his old room and settle in until he feels he’s straightened himself out. The results are funny yet tremendously telling: This is not only one of Reynolds’ best movies but also one of Brooks’ best efforts (Cinemax Friday at 8 p.m.)