Mothering Sunday

I wanted to like this film but it strikes me as an empty book, an idea abut time but with no place to go.

Main story set in 1924 sees the country gentry still reeling from the slaughter of World War I Several families maintain the tradition of a picnic by the river on Mother's Day and recall the times when the children played and swam in the river. They're all dead now except for the youngest (Josh O'Connor), who's about to marry one of the daughters who was engaged to one of the boys now dead.

A maid in the house named Jane (Odessa Young), an orphan who's been "in service" since she was 14, is having a secret affair with the boy and meets with him one last time before he goes to the party to announce his engagement to the young woman.

The lady of the house (Olivia Colman) tells the maid she's lucky to have been an orphan. She can observe life without having to deal with the deaths of loved ones.

Jane eventually leaves the house and goes to work in a bookstore where she meets a philosopher and becomes his lover (there's talk of marriage). We also see Jane as an old woman (Glenda Jackson) who has indeed lived most of her life as an observer and as a famous writer.

Jane's life after she leaves the country house is sketchy and the viewer will likely feel cheated. We're not told very much ... yet the film runs for 104 minutes.

Jane strikes me as a character out of time and place. Would an uneducated house maid in 1924 be this self- possessed and confidant? Were interracial marriages possible in England in the 1930s and 40s? What kinds of books did Jane write? No details.

Young is good and O'Connor is better. Colman and Jackson combined have about 10 minutes of screen time. Colin Firth plays the "lord of the manor," but no one else registers.

There's a reference to Virginia Woolf's "Orando" and I guess that's meant to be a clue. Jane is a character out of time. Time is fluid and has no temporal barriers.

The title "Mothering Sunday" might suggest that this would be a good one to take your ol' mum to see as 'a nice treat'. Which indeed you might like to do, as long as you set the expectations first! For this is a beautifully crafted, if flawed, story of life after the First World War. A movie that has less focus on those killed in battle and more on those left behind.

Positives:

• This movie looks stunning (cinematography by Jamie Ramsay), from the opening close-up shots of Odessa Young, through bucolic bike-riding in England's leafy lanes to the luscious love-making scenes. All perfectly staged and beautifully lit. You could take many of the stills from this movie and grace the walls of an art exhibition with them.

• Where has Odessa Young come from? The Sydney-born actress is just fabulous here, commanding a real presence for the camera. It's a brave performance too with sex and extensive full-frontal nudity. This includes a naked wander through the old house that might feel exploitative if the writer or director had been a man. (The ladies also get full-frontal views of Josh O'Connor which adds balance to the film. This is, frankly, so often lacking in films of this type).

• The rest of the acting from the ensemble cast is also top-notch. Colin Firth is just squirm-inducingly awful (in a great way) as Mr Niven, always tiptoeing around the tension in a very English way with platitudes about the weather. Olivia Colman is also magnificent: when is she not? I saw one user review on here saying that she "dialled in her performance" which I couldn't disagree with more. She's a living portrait of grief and anger. "You're so lucky", she says to Jane at one point, "to be so comprehensively bereaved at birth". The fact that she does virtually nothing with her face until a single dramatic explosion is the epitome of perfect acting, where 'less is more'.

• I liked the way that the film properly reflected the social damage of the war. We've been here before, with episodes of "Downton Abbey" for example, but the fact that this is set so many years after the conflict but that it was still so invasive gave me room for much thought.

• Complementing a strong female team behind the camera is composer Morgan Kibby with an interesting and engaging score.

Negatives:

• The events shown have a wraparound story showing Jane's later writing life, both in a mid-life relationship with philosopher Donald (Sope Dirisu) and her elderly life (where Jane is portrayed by Glenda Jackson). It is a genuine delight to see Ms Jackson on the screen again: astonishingly, according to IMDB, her last big-screen appearance was back in 1990! However, these structural elements of the story didn't work for me. Although I might be accused of 'not understanding what the writer was trying to do' (incorrect, I do), there is a case here, at least in the movie version, for a 'simple is good' approach. I think the underlying story set in 1924 was gripping and engaging enough not to require the complexity introduced by these later scenes. I'd have preferred a simpler 90-minute film focused on that story. (I've not read Graham Swift's book: perhaps this all works better as a novel?)
• Typecasting is a terrible thing, but Josh O'Connor has such a striking resemblance to Prince Charles that it's sometimes difficult not to think "Ooh, I've just seen the future king's bits"!

Summary Thoughts on "Mothering Sunday": It's the acting and the cinematography that sets this apart for me. Although it had its irritations, I found this to be a beautiful and engaging watch. The story is perhaps a tad predictable. But overall this is a nicely crafted and thought-provoking film that gets a thumbs up from me.

(For the full graphical review, check out #onemannsmovies online. Thanks.)

Eva Husson's first English-language film, 'Mothering Sunday,' is a lusty, deeply melancholy portrayal of loss and its lasting impact that often feels disjointed and uneven. It's pretty to look at with impressive performances (and sizzling chemisty) from Odessa Young and Josh O'Connor but, unfortunately, doesn't offer much else.

A young house maid (Odessa Young) to The Nivens (Colin Firth/ Olivia Coleman) visits her lover (Josh O'Connor) for the last time, whilst The Nivens visit the neighbours to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of their son, O'Connor, who obviously is otherwise engaged.

A film you need real patience for, as the bulk of the run time is taken up with a fairly straightforward tale of young lovers within the English upper classes - Upstairs, Downstairs if you will - and gently and nicely done it is.

It is worth waiting though, for quite a long way in, things develop dramatically that you probably won't expect, affecting the young couple, The Nivens and their neighbours which is handled magnificently. Odessa Young does a fine job holding all this together in the starring role, but support from Coleman and Firth is the high point, with a special treat with essentially just one scene featuring the great Glenda Jackson. Overall, slow to be sure, but ultimately cleverly written and rather moving.

The movie falls into the of those boring post-Covid films the pretentious critics try to convince you are masterpieces. While the sets and costumes (you just can't go wrong with Sandy Powell - she is a holy saint that really kind of saves this film) and excessively unnecessary nudity will keep your attention, the story is not compelling and borderline cliché. The undercooked script doesn't really dive into exploring the relationships, relying instead on almost constantly naked main characters silently wondering gorgeous premises. The time flashbacks are irritating to the point that they are laughable. The talents of Glenda Jackson, Colin Firth and Olivia Colman are criminally underused. The relationship of Jane and Donald characters is puzzling and unexplored after the basic fact that there is no chemistry between them. The cinematography is quite mediocre. The whole film is an opulent mess but on the other hand I have seen much much worse.