Anne Hathaway & Jessica Chastain Star In New Thriller About Every Mother’s Worst Fear

It’s the ideal situation: living right next door to your best friend and having kids the same age. Two little boys who also become best friends. An idyllic life, right? But what happens when tragedy strikes? That’s the premise behind the new movie Mothers’ Instinct, the threads that get pulled apart in mothers’ lives after suffering an unimaginable loss. And we cannot wait to see it. Here’s everything we know so far.

Is the new Mothers’ Instinct movie based on a book?

Yes, Barbara Abel’s 2003 book Mothers’ Instinct follows two couples living in a pretty suburb in with their sons, best of friends until tragedy strikes. The book became a bestseller in Belgium and was eventually adapted for a critically-acclaimed 2018 movie by the same name, and now it’s getting the American treatment.

This time around, the story is set in the suburbs in the ‘60s, and follows two mothers, Celine (Anne Hathaway) and Alice (Jessica Chastain), who spend all their time together along with Celine’s son Max and Alice’s son Theo. They are living their best lives, supporting each other as mothers and friends, until Alice sees Max standing dangerously close to the edge of the second-story terrace. He falls to his death even as she tries to get to him, and Celine is left crippled with sorrow over the loss of her son. And perhaps, rage against Alice for not saving him.

The Mothers’ Instinct trailer sees two mothers torn apart by grief and mistrust.

In the trailer for Mothers’ Instinct, we see Alice become increasingly agitated after Max’s death, particularly as Celine continues to spend time with Theo. She feels certain that Celine blames her for her son’s death, and starts to think that Celine is trying to take revenge against her by possibly hurting Theo. Is it all in her head? Or is Celine a danger to Theo? The movie, which has been billed as a psychological thriller, follows their tense battle of wills in a seemingly idyllic setting.

In an interview with Vogue Hong Kong, Anne Hathaway admitted that the role of Celine was “the hardest role I have played,” adding that, “It touched my worst fear and I almost backed out of the film because I didn’t know if I could go there as an actress.”

When does Mothers’ Instinct premiere?

No official release date has yet been set for Mothers’ Instinct in the U.S., but it should be released some time in 2024. Chastain wrote on Instagram that the movie is “coming soon to cinemas in the UK & Ireland.”