Mother’s Day
Director: Garry Marshall
Stars: Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts
Duration: 118 mins
Class: PG
KRS Releasing Ltd
Entertainment veteran Garry Marshall, whose TV/film career began almost 60 years ago, has been responsible for some of the small and big screens’ great comedies, romances and dramas.
Marshall has been involved as writer, producer, and/or director of such seminal TV comic classics as The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, The Odd Couple, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy and many more, while on the big screen he has been behind the likes of Beaches, Frankie and Johnny, The Princess Diaries and, of course, Pretty Woman.
Yet, Marshall has not had a bona fide hit in years. And, although his last two movies – the ensemble romantic comedies Valentine’s Day (2010) and 2011’s New Year’s Eve – didn’t go down too well with critics, they must have clicked with audiences on some level, both proving to be modest box office successes.
In fact, they were successful enough for Marshall to doggedly stick to the same formula for his third ‘holiday’ film in a row. He has gathered a solid ensemble and a series of intertwining feel-good stories surrounding the holiday in question... this time the eponymous Mother’s Day.
Jennifer Aniston stars as Sandy, a divorcee who finds out one morning that her ex-husband Henry (Timothy Olyphant) has just got married to a much younger, sexier woman (Shay Mitchell) with whom she has to share her young sons’ affections.
Julia Roberts is a successful author, full of regrets for her missed opportunity for motherhood. Jason Sudeikis’ Bradley and his two young daughters are facing the prospect of their first Mother’s Day following the death of his wife. Siblings Jesse (Kate Hudson) and Gabi (Sarah Chalke) hide their respective relationships from their estranged and rather bigoted, mother (Margo Martindale) while, young couple Kristin (Britt Robertson) and Zack (Jack Whitehall) come to terms with parenthood and the prospect of marriage.
Bog-standard and totally clichéd sitcom situations
So many mothers, so little time. For, as with the previous films, Mother’s Day has too many characters jostling for attention. Had there been fewer, however, there may still have been a problem, for they are so obvious and thinly-sketched it is hard to invest in them.
The paltry script by Tom Hines, Anya Kochoff Romano and Matt Walker never rises above the bog-standard and totally clichéd sitcom situations it presents.
The romance is pretty short on the ground – a meet between two characters in a supermarket who bond over the purchase of a packet of tampons is as romantic as things get. The plot thread featuring Hudson, Chalke and Martindale does little to celebrate the ‘alternative’ relationships at its core and is little more than a lazy depiction of a racist and homophobic person, whom we are to believe is redeemed following an escapade in a car.
Very little of what unfolds on screen raises so much as a chuckle; in fact, that the outtakes shown during the end credits are actually funnier than most of what has gone before speaks volumes.
The attractive and amiable cast stoically plough through proceedings, making the most of the thin material proffered by the script and they make things almost bearable.
Robertson and Whitehall make an impression in their storyline and it’s a refreshing change that it is the woman who is getting cold feet about marriage, for reasons that are genuine and heartfelt.
Overall, it is Roberts and Aniston who gracefully rise above the material and mine some depth out of their respective characters.
Roberts, unflattering wig not-withstanding, adds much warmth to Miranda, a hugely successful and popular woman who is forced to face a painful decision made years ago.
It pains me that Aniston is once again lumbered with another mediocre comedy that fails to make use of her comedic talents, although she does earn the audience’s sympathy as she struggles to come to terms with her ex-husband’s new marriage.