TMS Movie Review: Mothering Sunday
(Lionsgate / Sony Pictures Classics)
Eva Husson’s new picture, Mothering Sunday wants to be a throwback to erotic, European arthouse films, but is also pigeonholed into presenting as a UK period drama. For the past few years, we seem to get think pieces on how sexless and cold mainstream studio films are these days. Well, it appears Husson disagrees with that assessment as she doesn’t hold back from portraying as much graphic sensuality as possible with an R rating. While Hollywood can’t decide if getting rid of nudity and sex has made them progressive or prudes, Europe and independent film continue to take advantage of on-screen sexuality without being completely pornographic.
Set in England in between WWI and WWII, Jane Fairchild’s (Odessa Young) life takes many turns as she comes of age. In her late teens she’s a fulltime maid for a wealthy, but unhappy, older married couple: Godfrey and Clarrie Niven (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman). At the same time, she’s having a secret affair with an aspiring lawyer, Paul Sheringham (Josh O’Connor), who is also a family friend of the Nivens. By her early 20s, Jane’s switched to working at a local bookshop, where she meets Donald (Sope Dirisou). In her mid-20s, she and Donald are in a relationship and both professional writers.
(Lionsgate / Sony Pictures Classics)
Glenda Jackson makes an appearance as older, modern Jane. Mothering Sunday is adapted from Graham Swift’s 2016 with the same title. One thing you can’t accuse Husson of as a filmmaker is being biased or internally misogynistic, because there is a LOT of nudity and sex in the first half of this movie and we see every inch of both Young and O’Connor. In particular, it’s refreshing to see a young, pretty starlet in real life and in a period piece shown with natural body hair. Husson’s use of non-linear narrative and editing; whispery, breathless narration; and a tight string orchestrated score, makes you almost wish this was a new variation of something like Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June (1990) or Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972) [but with more consent compared to the latter]. Unfortunately, the sex/love scenes are the best part of Mothering Sunday, with the rest of Alice Birch’s script falling into melodramatic clichés and the supporting characters not fleshed out enough. The non-linear editing works for the scenes between Jane and Paul, but is a bit pretentious elsewhere, as are some of the voiceovers. There’s also an awkward scene which makes it bluntly obvious how inexperienced Jane was before she meets Paul, that would technically be accurate to a young girl’s first affair; but is still a little cringe like as a viewer.
Husson, a French filmmaker, seems caught between making a fancy romance and a soapy costume drama with Mothering Sunday. She’s much more comfortable with the former, so I hope her next film effort is more artistically freeform. But Young is a breath of fresh air and has enough chemistry with both O’Connor and Dirisou to keep you interested in watching. Mothering Sunday should be fully intriguing and unique, but instead goes the safe route of predictability.