TIFF 2021: Mothering Sunday
TIFF 2021Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday is a period romance set between the two World Wars, a delicate tale of loss and memory. While the film suffers from a rather imbalanced story and woefully messy editing, Mothering Sunday redeems itself through its costuming, cast, cinematography, and stunning depiction of sensuality.
Much of the film takes course over a Mothering Sunday when three rich families – Nivens, the Sheringhams, and the Hobdays – get together to enjoy a luncheon. It is a tight-knit family affair, but the characters that make up these families have an underlying emptiness to them, each suffering a loss from the First World War. The Nivens, played by Colin Firth and Olivia Colman, lost both their sons; while Paul (Josh O’Connor) was the only Sheringham boy to survive the war. He is engaged to marry Emma Hobday (Caroline Harker) but maintains a secret relationship with Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young). Jane is a housemaid to the Nivens family, living in a lustful fantasy with Paul. The two can never really be because of their class differences, but nothing else matters when they’re together.
Mothering Sunday is at its best when it focuses on the passion shared between Paul and Jane. Odessa Young and Josh O’Connor have impeccable chemistry, each actor bringing a sense of longing and yearning to the relationship. Every scene shared between the pair is simply riveting, though their love is inherently tragic since their class differences mean they can never be together. While Josh O’Connor brings his charm, Mothering Sunday is simply Odessa Young’s film. She is striking. Young manages to convey so much emotion with a mere twitch of her face; she gives a layered performance and makes Jane out to be a compelling heroine. Colin Firth and Olivia Colman also give stunning performances despite their limited screen time. Both are coping with the loss of their sons in different ways. Firth’s performance as Mr. Nivens is subtle, he maintains a cheerful smile on the outside, but his eyes give away the loss he has experienced. While Colman’s Mrs. Nevins is much colder, her loss comes with a lack of patience and she often snaps at the film’s other characters.
Mothering Sunday is adapted from a novel written by Graham Swift by Alice Birch and, while the romance between Paul and Jane is written with such tenderness, the rest of the film can’t hold a candle to those scenes. A lot of this has to do with the haphazard editing by Emilie Orsini. With time it is revealed that Mothering Sunday takes place along different timelines. In the future, Jane has become a writer detailing her past romance with Paul. Before this is revealed, there are a few shots of random words Jane says written in calligraphy that are scattered in the first act and seem out of place until the film gets to this reveal. Structurally, the two timelines of Mothering Sunday aren’t stitched together well and it wrecks the pacing of the film and also comes across as quite confusing, which is a shame because Mothering Sunday is so great in so many other aspects. The cinematography by Jamie Ramsay is of particular merit, with breathtaking shots that help convey the love between Jane and Paul. While Sandy Powell’s costume design perfectly captures the time period and personalities of the characters – her colour palette of reds and blues match the film’s fiery passion and melancholy sorrows.
Mothering Sunday is a gorgeous period piece with a striking romance. Director Eva Husson proves she has an eye for detail and is helped along by her wonderful cast. Odessa Young brings so much heart to this film. While certain aspects of its writing and its editing are dreadfully messy, Mothering Sunday remains a worthwhile feature due to the way the film explores memory.