My Mother’s Wedding
review by Bobby Blakey
Kristin Scott Thomas has had a long, impressive career in front of the camera and now she is taking on double duty making her directorial debut with her latest film My Mother’s Wedding. The film features a great cast including Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Emily Beecham, and Freida Pinto. Could this film offer up something special or will it be a wedding not worth attending?
My Mother’s Wedding follows three sisters who return to their childhood home for a momentous occasion: the third wedding of their twice-widowed mother. Over the weekend, the family gathers to celebrate the new marriage, but mother and daughters alike are forced to revisit the past and confront the future, all with help from a colorful group of unexpected wedding guests.
What is interesting about this film is that while the catalyst to getting these sisters back together is their mother’s wedding, but that is not even the focus. It gets everyone together and then the real exploration of their relationship and lives begins. I think I was instantly expecting them to not get along and have divided issues going in and even almost teasing at first but once together it was not so.
Yes, they have issues, but this is more about their individual like issues and how this weekend forces them to all look within themselves, each other and the worlds they have created as adults. The wedding is not only perfect for bringing them together but is an important next step for their mother and the sisters to accept and move forward with their own issues.
The cast are all excellent and have great family chemistry making for an interesting and compelling story, but it also kind of falls into a cliched formula at times that keeps it from standing out. I did like that a lot of the usual tropes,
while familiar here aren’t just the same old stuff. Moreover, the relationship with the new husband and the reveal at the end just feels more real and heartwarming as opposed to the usual attempt to force more drama.
In the end the film is good and will no doubt connect with audiences. It brings a wide range of life emotions complete with a cool inspiration from Thomas at the end that makes the story work all the better. It’s worth checking out and I hope that it will find its audience amidst all the sequels and big popcorn flicks filling theaters now.
Decide for yourself and check out My Mother’s Wedding in theaters August 8th from Vertical Entertainment.