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The Guardian
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Four Mothers review – a put-upon writer is run ragged in Irish comedy charmer
A frazzled, thirtysomething gay novelist, Edward (James McArdle) is preparing for a tour of the US to promote his latest book, a hotly tipped coming-of-age story. But there's a problem: Edward is the primary carer for his elderly mum, Alma (Fionnula Flanagan). Alma is recovering from a stroke that has robbed her of her speech but not the ability to make her many opinions on Edward's life forcefully clear. Edward's situation is further complicated when his three friends decide to take a weekend break to Gran Canaria for Maspalomas Pride, unceremoniously offloading their mams on the doorstep of the boxy Dublin semi Edward shares with Alma. Co-written by director Darren Thornton with his brother Colin and loosely based on Gianni Di Gregorio's hit Italian comedy-drama Mid-August Lunch (2008), Four Mothers is a charmer of a picture that lures us in with Edward's angst but hits its stride when it digs into the dynamics between the four women who run Edward ragged with their catering requests and incessant bickering. What could have been a sentimental plodder gets a pleasingly acerbic tang from the bracing cattiness of the dialogue. In UK and Irish cinemas
The Guardian
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Four Mothers review – remake of Mid-August lunch moves to Dublin and brings out queer subtext
Gianni Di Gregorio's modern Italian classic Mid-August Lunch from 2008, about a middle-aged bachelor caring for his ageing mum and other elderly ladies, has inspired this loose remake: a broad comedy amplifying what could be seen as the original's queer subtext. Despite one or two sweet touches and game performances, it never comes close to matching the gentleness, subtlety and charm of the original. The action is transferred from Rome to Dublin and the gay theme perhaps effectively replaces the importance of food in the Italian film. James McArdle is Edward, a YA author and gay man on the verge of major literary stardom, for which an upcoming US publicity tour is vitally important. But he has to take care of his widowed mum Alma (Fionnula Flanagan) who cannot speak after suffering a stroke, and there is some droll comedy with the Stephen Hawking voice enunciating her crisp commands from her iPad. And then Edward's three gay male friends (he appears to have no female friends, gay or straight), dump their elderly mums on him because they all want to head off for a dissolute Pride weekend abroad; they are Maude (Stella McCusker), Jean (Dearbhla Molloy) and Rosie (Paddy Glynn). And so Edward, decent guy that he is, does his best to look after these formidably opinionated and difficult four ladies while dealing with his own private heartbreak and issues with anxiety, as well as his unresolved anger about his late father. There are moments when it comes to life and there's a nice cameo for Niamh Cusack, but for me, the film is at once bland and cartoony. Four Mothers is in UK and Irish cinemas from 4 April.
