Anne Hathaway plays a grieving mother alongside Jessica Chastain.

Netflix viewers have been praising a jaw-dropping, star-studded thriller that’s already topped the platform’s most-watched film chart.

Anne Hathaway has been booked and busy over the last two years, having portrayed Solène in The Idea of You, Rebecca in the film adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel Eileen and opposite Peter Dinklage in She Came to Me.

Another film that the 41-year-old starred in earlier this year is a psychological flick serving as Benoît Delhomme’s directorial debut.

The movie stars Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain (Neon)

Hathaway’s performance as Céline in the offering has been hailed as ‘sensational’ by fans, while others have been applauding her on-screen counterpart and fellow Oscar winner Jessica Chastain for also doing a ‘great job’ as Alice.

The film, set in 1960s suburban America, sees the Princess Diaries favourite portraying a mother-of-one living next door to her best friend Alice and her young family.

The day after Alice stages a surprise birthday party for Céline, the latter elects to keep her son, Max, off school.

However, tragedy strikes when Alice witnesses her friend’s son fall to his death from a balcony.

What ensues is a dramatic story of manipulation, gaslighting and fierce revenge where only one woman emerges from the events alive.

If your interest is piqued, then you can check out the trailer for Mothers’ Instinct below:

Mothers’ Instinct, distributed by Neon, was released in UK cinemas earlier this year.

It serves as a direct remake of Oliver Masset-Depasse’s 2018 French-language film.

The original movie is also based on Barbara Abel’s 2012 novel of the same name.

Despite only dropping on Netflix earlier this week, Mothers’ Instinct currently holds the coveted ‘No.1 in Films Today’ spot and has caused major discussion across social media.

After watching the movie, one viewer typed: “Mothers Instinct on Netflix is such a good movie omg.”

Chastain plays young mother Alice in the flick (Neon)

A second said: “Between this and Eileen, I’m really digging Anne Hathaway’s streak of ‘woman in a period piece with an unclear, possibly sinister agenda’.”

Someone else commented: “It would have been a much better film if it was just psychological paranoia but a serial killer, please.”

A fourth debated: “One of my favourite thrillers I’ve ever seen… hate the ending though.”

Another added: “So I watched Mothers Instinct and it was so good, the twists and turns had my jaw dropping several times. Ann Hathaway is sensational, Jessica Chastain did a great job as well.”

Hathaway participates in a huge plot twist (Neon)

What is the plot twist in Mothers’ Instinct?

If you’re planning on watching Mothers’ Instinct sometime soon then be aware that spoilers are ahead.

After Max falls to his death, Céline and Alice’s close bond starts to deteriorate at a rapid pace.

The latter starts to feel overwhelming guilt for being unable to save Max while her friend seems to blame her for for failing to avert the tragedy.

As tensions rise, Alice becomes suspicious of Céline and when her mother – referred to as Grandma Jean – dies, she’d convinced that Céline is out for revenge.

Later, Alice discovers her friend is harbouring a large supply of chloroform in her home which she later becomes a victim of.

In an intense showdown, Céline knocks Alice and her husband unconscious using the chloroform before killing them by gassing their house.

Hathaway’s character ‘saves’ Alice’s son Theo and is later granted custody of him.

It appears that consumed by grief for her own son, Céline worked to gaslight Alice and eventually take her son for her own.