A dysfunctional family gathering for a special occasion (whether it is a marriage or funeral) has long served as a mature dramatic backdrop for a reason. What better excuse to bring together a heterogeneous team of characters who know exactly how to push each other and flirt with resentments in the process for a long time? If Kristin Scott Thomas’ “mother’s marriage” never entirely reaches the heights of this kind, it is not for lack of trying. Parties in equal parts Anton Chekhov and Richard Curtis, his beginnings as director end up being a sweet and rather modest family affair.
The premise of “My Mother’s Wedding” is as simple as its title suggests. The Katharine sisters (Scarlett Johansson), Victoria (Sienna Miller) and Georgina (Emily Beecham) come together for a weekend in their childhood home to testify to the third marriage of their mother. Diana (Scott Thomas), twice, apparently found love. Only, what is supposed to be a weekend of celebration family becomes rather an emotional bomb because each of the three daughters of Diana (Navy officer, film star and nurse) is forced to fight against their tragic past, their rabougriers and the glows of possibility that await them in their future in advance.
The stay during this weekend in the sun in the English countryside (the filmmaker “Sauvage” and “Big Little Lies” Yves Bélanger opts for a brilliantly lit aesthetic) are the memories of the fathers, these three now large girls do not seem to go. Katharine entered the navy like John Frost, she and the father of Victoria. And while his death in action makes a big fodder of talk show for his sister, who is an actor, the stoic Katherine devoted her career to honor her memory instead. This is perhaps the reason why she finds it difficult to honor Johnny Monson, Georgina’s father (and John’s best friend), who entered their lives for too much bread before him, also disappeared in battle. A family story so fractured and tragic has obviously injured her and made her more difficult for her to be more kept with those she loves and who wish to love her.
A Defter script could have painted more graciously such a rich and captivating family portrait. But given the complicated background frame required to understand Diana and her daughters, it is not surprising to find the first third of the “mother’s wedding” bogged down with an endless dialogue intended to set up the more and more thorny family dynamics at stake when they all come together. Add the intertwined scenarios concerning each of the romantic perspectives of the sisters (which include a wild and surprisingly hot underlying intrigue involving a hidden camera as well as a more superfluous camera involving a helicopter) and you continued to wish that Scott Thomas fought this effiled but loving family in a more disciplined company.
As it stands, “my mother’s marriage” looks like a party where you can barely meet all the guests who are united and yet are overwhelmed by the endless chatting on their life that they share with you when you greet them. For a moment you find your foot with regard to the drama involving Katharine’s partner (played by Freida Pinto), and the next one you are called to be invested in the future husband of Diana, the name of Geoff Loveglove (James Fleet). It’s a bit of a pity because Johansson, Miller and Beecham make a whole trio. When the film slows down and allows them to savor in the fraternal link which so clearly maintains this family (and the film) together, the first feature film by Scott Thomas sings. There is an affectionate care that these actors take to these parties, without a doubt because of the long career of the first career in the director – and the personal connection that she obviously has so with the material to be accomplished.
The film is dedicated, as a title card at the start of the credit states, at the CDR Simon Thomas RN 1935-1966 and CDR Simon Idiens RN 1933-1972: “In my memory of my fathers,” he said. The story of these sisters haunted by the loss of two fathers all these decades ago is personal enough for Scott Thomas. With her husband, journalist John Micklethwait, Scott Thomas designed a scenario that used memories of his childhood twice as embarrassing in a launch for the type of story that looks like a welcome combination of his most cherished projects. The actor is well known for his work on the screen in “Four weddings and funerals”, “The English patient” and “Gosford Park” (and on stage in plays like “Three Sisters” and “The Seagull”). That is to say: it is not unrelated to the stories focused on the way in which we can never escape the ghosts of our past. And how, perhaps, the only way to solve such challenges is with warm humor and spry.
On paper, “my mother’s marriage” looks like a perfect vehicle for Scott Thomas. And the actor who has become a director shows a great talent to arouse wonderfully experienced performances of his distribution of play. How refreshing he is to see Johasson working on such an intimate scale, lending her talents to a woman stuck between the life to which she has long been oriented and the one she may need if she has to build the family she has never had. Likewise, Miller is a joy to look at because she (and Scott Thomas) savor the satialization of a modern film star who just wants to be taken seriously and not be courted by rich assholes who can barely see beyond the facade she offers the world.
However, everything never gélifies as transparent as it should. As the problems of parenting, partnerships and paternal memories are all in the foreground (teed one with animated interstitials everywhere), “my mother’s marriage” gives the impression of starting. It was not until this time that marriage and the film end rather in a too careful conclusion. As soon as you have settled in its familiar rhythms and started to take advantage of how these sisters count on each other (and were irrevocably shaped by their mother without frills) than Scott Thomas takes us and calls her a day. Also armed with a lot of heart and texture performances with love, “My Mother’s Wedding” is ultimately too hirsute and a proposal to win his emotional intestinal. It is the kind of family gathering that is no exception – for better and for worse.
