Film Review: Mothering Sunday a Beautiful Tale of Loves Interrupted
Based on the novel by Graham Swift, Mothering Sunday is the captivating story of Jane Fairchild(Odessa Young) who, as a young woman, works as a maid and is involved in a delicious entanglement with law student Paul Sheringham (Josh O’Connor) in the post World War I English countryside. Jane works for Mr. & Mrs. Niven (Olivia Colman and Colin Firth), a wealthy middle-aged couple whose relationship seems to be the epitome of discomfort. Jane is given Mother’s day off by Mr. Niven and spends the day in bed with Paul, who, by the way, is engaged to be married.
The film is gorgeous. The acting all around is brilliant. The soundtrack by Morgan Kibby is divine. I loved being transported into this world. I was so grateful to be immersed in a story about people who I cared about. Beautiful craft. Thank you.
I’ve always been in love with British TV and film. Watching one of my favorite modern female British actors, Olivia Colman, onscreen with one of my all-time favorite British male actors, Colin Firth, captured my heart from the first frame. Let me say first, BRAVO to the women behind the camera who breathed life into this story. The screenplay, written by Alice Birch, feels spacious, luscious, and painful. Experiencing this story interpreted by women was magnificent. Director Eva Husson allows silences to add so much depth to the story I felt multiple emotions I can’t quite explain during a scene where Jane wanders alone through the manor after a long afternoon of lovemaking with Paul. Every part of this sequence was magic.
The cast includes several women of diverse ages and social classes dealing with loss at different stages of life in compelling ways. It’s refreshing to see a tale strictly about a woman in love that doesn’t center children and motherhood and does so unapologetically.
I’m not gonna lie; the love scenes in this film are simultaneously hot and romantic. Odessa Young and Josh O’Connor’s chemistry sizzles and makes the audience lean into this story. And I mean O’Connor is plain awesome in every role I’ve seen him in so far. I love it when I’m watching a movie, and I can’t predict what’s going to happen until a split second before the main character realizes what’s happening.
Jane is a writer, and we get to see her as an artist experiencing her life and then processing life into art. Jane comes up against love lost from a perspective of truth that, in the past, we rarely got to see women embody. So many love stories focus on the hunt, achieving love without actually being able to see how love ends in a lifetime. Mothering Sunday is a film about endings. Which I ADORE!!!
The costumes, set, and score allowed me to travel through space and time and identify with these characters onscreen as people I cared about in the ways that only great storytellers can achieve. The pace of this film was luxurious and went by at just the right pace. Later in the movie, Jane’s relationship with Donald (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) fits into the narrative effortlessly. I loved how the film reflects how we human beings can have more than one big romantic love in our lifespan.
I love that I’m still taking time to figure out why the title of this film was Mothering Sunday. I look forward to sussing this out with my friends over mugs of hot chocolate and croissants huddled in warm corners of cafes this winter.
I give Mothering Sunday 5 out of 5 stars.
Mothering Sunday Sony Pictures Classics Release date US- February 25, 2022
