THE BIG It’s impossible to be a perfect mom

As working mums are given the Hangover treatment, Mila Kunis and Kathryn Hahn tell SUSAN GRIFFIN about the very real message at the heart of the comedy romp

MILA Kunis is keen people aren’t misled by the title of her new movie, Bad Moms. “It isn’t about mums that put their kids’ lives in danger or anything. It’s not like, ‘I’m a bad mum, I forgot I had a child!’ It’s not that dramatic,” explains the 33-year-old.

“It’s [about] being able to allow yourself to make mistakes. To know that it’s OK to ask for help and not put so much pressure on yourself. The antithesis of the perfection that society puts on us and that we put on ourselves.”

Mila stars as Amy, a busy working mother on the verge of a nuclearfamily meltdown.

After finally snapping and admitting the stress of trying to juggle work and family life is too much, she joins forces with fellow over-stressed mums, Kiki (Kristen Bell) and Carla (Kathryn Hahn).

Together, they decide to free themselves from conventional responsibilities, and embark on a binge of long-overdue freedom and self-indulgence, which puts them on a collision course with PTA queen bee Gwendolyn (Christina

Girls just wanna have fun: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn play mums getting back in touch with their wild sides in Bad Moms Applegate) and her devotees, Vicky (Annie Mumolo) and Stacy (Jada Pinkett Smith).

Ukraine-born Kunis admits she was a little surprised to discover the film was penned by The Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore.

“When I read it the first time, I didn’t pay attention to who wrote it, and then at the very end I was like, ‘Huh?’ They’d written, ‘To our wives’.

“I flipped to the front page and thought, ‘No s**t, it was written by two guys’.

“And it did make sense,” she adds. “It was written very much like an homage.” Her co-star, Kathryn Hahn, agrees. “It is such a beautiful love letter to their wives,” remarks the 43-year-old. “Even if I wasn’t in this movie, they spoke exactly to the kind of movie that I would want to see with my girl pals on a summer evening.

“People are hungry for good storytelling of any kind. Complicated and messy women are part of it.”

Kathryn’s character Carla is blissfully unconcerned with people’s opinions of her, a trait the actress says she doesn’t share.

“I always feel, in whatever role I get, I act out the fantasy of what I’m unable to do in my real life,” says Illinois-born Kathryn, whose credits also include comedies How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and We’re The Millers.

“There’s something so cathartic about playing someone that could completely divorce herself, whether

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or not it’s the healthiest [thing to do], from guilt or consequence.”

She confesses she’d feel too guilty to follow suit and properly cut loose from responsibility.

“You know, we’re working mamas, so just to even go out with your girlfriends on a Tuesday night for dinner, you feel like you’re going to be so screwed the next morning,” she says.

“But then you think, ‘God, that’s going to feed my soul for the next week – just being able to see my pals that I haven’t seen in a gazillion years’.

“So I think there’s a happy medium. It’s not even about the alcohol.

“It’s just about lessening those crazy expectations that we put on

Dearest (1981) BASED ON a tell-all book by the adopted daughter of movie idol Joan Crawford, this campy cult classic paints the actress (played by Faye Dunaway) as an unhinged control freak, taking out her frustrations on her daughter.

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Men BABY (1987) FLATMATES TED Danson, Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg’s lives change when a baby is left on their doorstep. Ironically, this sappy, sentimental comedy was directed by Leonard Nimoy – Star Trek’s emotionless Spock. &A