Mother of all upsets
MOTHERING SUNDAY Cert 15 ★★★
The stuffy English period film is given a dose of Gallic flair with an achingly beautiful adaptation of Graham Swift’s 2016 novella. French director Eva Husson (Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story) signals her upstairs-downstairs drama is no Downton Abbey from the onset with arty shots of breezy fields dappled in sunlight.
Fans of cosy costume dramas will be in for another shock during an eye-popping sex scene and its long aftermath where her two young leads (Odessa Young and Josh O’Connor) go full frontal for a lengthy post-coital chat. It’s 1924 and the aristocratic Nivens (Olivia Colman and Colin Firth) are trying really hard not to talk about the sons they lost in the trenches. While they head out for a misjudged Mother’s Day meal with their equally miserable friends, their maid Jane (Young) nips out for that steamy encounter with Paul (O’Connor), the only remaining son of their wellheeled neighbours.
After he’s gone over his survivor’s guilt while getting dressed shirt and jacket first (put some pants on!), Jane wanders around the house naked while experiencing flashbacks and flash forwards. In one section, set in what looks like the 1950s, she’s a remarkably youthful middle-aged writer dating a philosopher (Sope Dirisu).
In another, she appears to have turned into an elderly Glenda Jackson and is hammering away at a typewriter.
The fractured timeline keeps us guessing and award-winning designer Sandy Powell’s costumes (when the cast are wearing them) are impeccably designed.
I just wish Husson had injected the film with a bit of British humour. This dour, languorous film is crying out for a withering look from Maggie Smith and the earthy wisdom of a Mrs Patmore.
Fans of cosy costume dramas will be in for another shock during a sex scene