Mother's Day English Movie

Feature Film | 2016 | UA | Comedy, Social Issues
Critics:
Audience:
You had better stay away from American suburbia. It is a candy colored world which is full of cliched characters who laugh a little too loudly, smile too widely, and are happy to make their 'problems' public. Watch it when it plays on cable and you have nothing else to do...
Apr 28, 2016 By Manisha Lakhe


Mother's Day is just an excuse. This is a town full of over-the-top men, women and children who lead textbook 'problem' lives: 'ex' getting married to younger woman, they're lesbian but haven't told their parents, married a colored guy and lied to parents, RV riding bigoted, racist white folk, man pining away for dead wife, children ignored because dad is mourning his dead wife, gossipy neighbors, one upmanship with the 'ex', children at school, teenage daughter has a crush, a kid with hospital emergency, African American cops, unwed mother, daughter with commitment and abandonment issues.


And everything, everything has been shot in glorious candy colors. It's a strain on the eyes because you cannot look away. You have been hypnotized by the stars on the screen. And the lineup is enviable: Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Jason Sudeikis, Hector Elizondo (remember him? The suave manager of the hotel in Pretty Woman), Margo Martindale, Robert Pine. When you watch them play cliched roles like the jealous mother of two who has lost her ex to a younger woman who wears skimpy clothes, lesbian sister who has lied to parents who are racist and bigoted and so 'white' they drive an RV and drink beer...Wait! I said that a paragraph ago. Why am I repeating it?


That's because events seem to be playing on in parallel loop. Again and again and again until you want to scream at Jennifer Aniston and ask her why she is playing that 'mom' role who does not want doughnuts in the house... You also get fed up of seeing a child's asthmatic condition being exploited again (remember Stepmom?) for the sake of showing harried moms know better than skimpy dress wearing dad's new wife.


Am I repeating myself again? The events in the movie do too. And although they paid Jason Sudeikis enough money to get him into pink pants, they don't enter our hearts. Watch this film when it shows up on a lazy Sunday afternoon and there's nothing else playing on the cable.

Manisha Lakhe

   

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