Mothering Sunday

After World War I, an English family still mourns its son's death – but with buttoned-up emotions.

It is Mothers' Day in 1924 in the heart of England where the Niven family (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman) still mourn the loss of their son in the Great War. Their maid, the orphaned Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young), is having an affair with Paul (Josh O'Connor), the son of their neighbours, the Sheringhams (Craig Crosbie and Emily Woof). With their buttoned-up emotions, the Nivens keep calm and carry on. Paul has become a replacement for their lost son and they are pleased when he announces his engagement to one Emma Hobday. Notwithstanding, however, Paul and Jane enjoy their last day of secret passion while the family are away celebrating Mother's Day.

Paul had lost many of his fellow compatriots in the war and he now lives a life of guilt and regret, wondering whether he can achieve the promise the two families expect of him. After Paul and Jane's farewell fling, Jane goes on later to become a successful writer and has a relationship with academic Donald (Sope Dìrísù) and ends up becoming an internationally celebrated author, played in Jane's later life by Glenda Jackson in a touching cameo.

Alice Birch has adapted Graham Swift's novella for the screen but it all seems so tenuous and at times soporific and for a piece that is essentially about passions – for writing, for loving and for success – the film has a marked lack of fervour about it. One cannot complain, however, about the performances, for the Australian actress Odessa Young impresses greatly as Jane, Josh O'Connor as Paul is all too credible as he is pulled in so many directions, and as the Nivens, those two stalwart British actors, Colin Firth and Olivia Colman, are their usual faultless selves. Director Eva Husson is, however, a little too tentative, although Jamie Ramsay's cinematography is quality personified.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Cast: Odessa Young, Josh O'Connor, Sope Dìrísù, Glenda Jackson, Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Emma d'Arcy, Simon Shepherd, Emily Woof, Craig Crosbie.

Dir Eva Husson, Pro Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, Screenplay Alice Birch, from the novel by Graham Swift, Ph Jamie Ramsay, Pro Des Helen Scott, Ed Kharmel Cochrane, Music Morgan Kibby, Costumes Sandy Powell, Dialect coach Neil Swain.

British Film Institute/Film4/Lipsync Productions/Number 9 Films/ZDF/Arte-Lionsgate/Sony Pictures Classics.
104 mins. UK. 2021. UK Rel: 12 November 2021. US Rel: 25 February 2022. Cert 15.