Ultimately a celebration of motherhood and all its complexities, “Nightbitch” for much of its roughly hour-and-40-minute runtime plays like a plea to spare yourself of the experience.

In theaters this week, the film from writer-director Marielle Heller is an adaptation of the debut novel by Rachel Yoder, a magical realism tale of a new-ish mother who, amid her struggles, sometimes transforms into a dog.

One reviewer called Yoder’s 2021 work “a stunning modern feminist fable,” a fair description, as well, for the mostly enjoyable, highly thought-provoking and consistently empathy-generating big-screen version of this story in which metaphor blends, at times somewhat confusingly, with reality.

Amy Adams impresses as Mother, who lives in a suburb of an unnamed city in a time seemingly well before smartphones and other tech on which we now rely/to which we are addicted. The two next most important figures also go without real names, veteran actor Scoot McNairy portraying Husband and 3-year-old twins Arleigh and Emmett Snowden doing nice work in their movie debuts as 2-year-old Son.

We meet Mother and Son at a grocery store, the woman being stopped by a friend she hasn’t seen in a while, who asks her if being a stay-at-home mom is wonderful. Mother replies that the question is a good one and one that is complicated to answer.

“I would love to feel content,” she says, “but instead I feel like I’m just stuck inside a prison of my own creation, where I torment myself until I’m left binge-eating Fig Newtons at midnight to keep from crying.”

She continues, bringing into her reply how forces such as societal norms, gender expectations and biology have contributed to her becoming a person she doesn’t recognize, one who is frequently angry.

Not surprisingly, this diatribe is only in her head, the response she would love to give instead of simply saying that yes, it is, and leaving the viewer to question what is real and what simply metaphor in the events to come.

Mother gave up her career as an artist to stay at home with Son, a choice Husband, who goes off to work in the morning, eagerly supported. Now, she does her best to feed and entertain her child during the day. At night, she desperately works to get him to go to sleep, cursing herself for letting the boy sleep on her belly long after the parenting books she’d read suggested she should stop.

She also takes him to Book Babies, a storytelling series for little ones at the neighborhood library. She’s made nice enough friends there in Jen (Zoe Chao), Miriam (Mary Holland) and Liz (Archana Rajan), who can relate at least somewhat with what she’s going through, joking about the more-fun “before times.” What Mother really wants, though, is someone with whom she can more strongly bond — someone, ideally, who also HATES Book Babies.

With the well-cast Adams (“Arrival,” “American Hustle”) committed to the role, Mother soon notices physical changes in herself, alterations only she can see, such as the growth of some fur-like hair, sharpening canine teeth and, yes, even a a small tail. Dogs at the park take great interest in her, and she craves meat. (She becomes defensive when Husband challenges her over why they are out of milk but have an abundance of protein in the refrigerator.)

Thinking back to her own childhood and the seemingly odd behavior of her own mother, Mother seeks answers in books and receives some unexpected help from a librarian, Norma (Jessica Harper).

As her metamorphosis becomes increasingly realized, Mother embraces it, bringing dog-like behavior into her time with Son — which, understandably, concerns Husband — and running the streets as others sleep.

According to the film’s production notes, Yoder came up with the idea of the book after dropping out of the workforce as a new mother, and Heller read it soon after having her second child. Perhaps the greatest strength of “Nightbitch” is the unmistakable emotions behind its sentiment, feelings some of us will never experience but can do our best to recognize and understand.

Unquestionably, this dark and at times darkly humorous take on Yoder’s story by Heller — whose previous directorial effort was 2019’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” in which Tom Hanks portrayed beloved children’s television entertainer Fred Rogers — will speak to myriad women.

And men probably would benefit from some of the shortcomings of Husband, who, in the hands of the dependable McNairy (“Argo,” “Halt and Catch Fire”), certainly possesses some redeeming qualities. (Thankfully, if Mother is intended to represent women in general and Husband men, the latter group isn’t painted as a one-dimensional villain here.)

Heller, who says Yoder “gave me full range to bring my own life into the story and make changes to make it into a movie,” saw the film “as the antidote to Instagram culture, where motherhood is curated and everything looks perfect and impossible — and makes you feel like (expletive) about yourself.”

Perhaps it is fitting, then, that “Nightbitch” — an offering from Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures originally intended for a debut on the streaming service Hulu — feels a little messy, a vision of this story that could have been more fully realized with, perhaps, more time and resources.

Regardless, this unusual tale of rage, confusion, uncertainty and, eventually, intense love is likely — pun intended — to give you something to chew on for a while.

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‘NIGHTBITCH’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language and some sexuality)

Running time: 1:38

How to watch: In theaters Dec. 6

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