Brooks portrays a novelist who moves back home with his mother after his second divorce, hoping to determine why all his relationships with women were unsuccessful.

Perplexed by his issues with women, realizing that none of them supported or encouraged him, John decides to initiate an experiment that will help him understand what went wrong in his relationships: he moves back in with his widowed mother Beatrice, occupying the same bedroom he had as a child.

John's relationship with his mother is characterized by constant bickering and power struggles; both are perfectionists strongly committed to their respective points of view.

He learns she was a skilled writer who went to college on a scholarship, only to have her talent discouraged by her husband and the then-prevailing social expectation that mothers should not have careers outside the home.

John realizes now that his mother's passive aggression toward him stems from his career reminding her of her unfulfilled ambitions and envy that her dream came true for her son.

Brooks then asked his good friend Carrie Fisher if she could send the script to her mother Debbie Reynolds, who accepted the part.

The site's consensus states "Albert Brooks' pugnacious insight is in fine form throughout Mother, a gentle showcase for the comedic curmudgeon and a sweetly acidic Debbie Reynolds.

Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Mother 3.5 stars out of a possible 4, writing that while the premise seemed like the setup for a cheap sitcom, Brooks "is much too smart to settle for the obvious gags and payoffs...the dialogue in Mother is written so carefully that some lines carry two or three nuances."