My Mother’s Wedding
Synopsis: Three sisters gather for their twice-widowed mother’s wedding. Tensions arise on the wedding day and secrets come out.
When characters remind each other to behave at an upcoming wedding, chances are there will be misbehavior. True in real-life too. Hopefully, you have never been a relative assigned to keep feuding exes away from each other or to steer an alcohol binger away from the bar.
In actor Kristin Scott Thomas’ directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding, three grown sisters are determined to keep their own troubles under wrap on their mom’s wedding day. Mum Diana is played by Kristin Scott Thomas.
The sisters aren’t thrilled that their mother is remarrying after many years. The guy, Geoff (James Fleet), is perfectly nice, but they can’t believe their mom is marrying someone who is <gasp> kind of boring. He’s content to dodder around birdwatching. Their fathers were flashy…
Katherine (Scarlett Johansson) and Victoria (Sienna Miller)’s late father was a British Armed Forces pilot. Mom remarried his friend, another military pilot, and they had Georgina (Emily Beecham). This husband died an untimely death as well. Frankly, I can see why the mom, on her third marriage, is staying far away from adrenaline junkies with their dangerous jobs.
All of the characters in the movie are British. I was interested in My Mother’s Wedding partially to hear American Scar Jo’s English accent. Good for her, she pulls it off. Her Katherine is a Royal Navy Captain. We see her onboard ship, issuing orders to her male crew. She’s in line for a promotion. It made me wonder about the reality of career advancement for women in the UK armed forces.
I can see three reasons why Scarjo took this job. 1) Fun to use an English accent 2) Cool to play a real girl boss, commanding a ship hither and yon 3) A break from her husband, Colin Jost. He seems like a nice guy, but she probably gets tired of his smirky grin.
Emily Beecham is the one lead actress who is not famous. She has the unglamorous role of being an NHS nurse. She says the pay is bad, but she loves her job. She’s got two adorable young daughters. Her husband, Jeremy (Joshua McGuire), is an absolute arseh***; sleazy and conceited. He refers to himself as Jezzy and considers himself the life of the party. The other two sisters can’t stand him. In fact, her older sister Victoria has hired a private investigator to catch him cheating on Georgina.
Victoria (Sienna Miller) is a famous actress. Her latest movie is part of a franchise called Dame of Darkness– think Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld movies. When we meet her, she is promoting the flick on a late-night talk show helmed by a guy who comes off like a cut-rate Jimmy Fallon. She loves LA and doesn’t want to go back to England because the weather sucks.
All three sisters are at their mum’s house in the English countryside by the day before the wedding. KST’s Diana is serene and wise. She’s the swanky senior version of the elegant swan she played in Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Diana knows her daughters don’t see the point of her remarrying, but they all want to make nice. Fiancé Geoff does his best to keep the younger generation busy with outdoor activities. Victoria’s young teen son, Marcus, is being a better sport about being in the English countryside than his mom. Georgina’s two girls flit about while their mom frets about what her (probably) cheating husband is up to back in London. Finally, Miles…
Miles is a soft-spoken tween who lives with his mom Katherine’s girlfriend, Jack (Freida Pinto), while his mom is gone for months at a time for work. The boy seems to accept that the sea is in his mother’s veins and he’s fine with Jack as his de facto fulltime parent. For some reason, Katherine is reluctant to commit to her adoring gf who wants marriage. She better figure something out soon, since her child is being raised by the woman.
You’ll note that the movie title is not Our Mother’s Wedding, but My Mother’s Wedding. The star daughter in question is–of course– ScarJo’s character, Katherine. Director KST has twice played a mother to a daughter played by Scarjo. They appeared together in the Robert Redford movie The Horse Whisperer (1998) and again in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).
The memories of childhood and the long lost fathers belong to Katherine. Over the weekend she periodically lies down on the floor or in bed and conjures memories of her dad and stepdad. Her musings are movingly expressed to the audience with pen and ink cartoons by Reza Rizhi.
The wedding day arrives…
Expect laughter and bickering among the sisters. Maybe an unexpected guest. Small reveals. And, naturally, the director giving themselves a big monologue.
My favorite cameo is from the HMS Prince of Wales. Yes, the aircraft carrier that is the fleet flagship of the Royal Navy. I’m a pacifist, but it’s quite a feat of engineering and design. This is the ship that Katherine aspires to command.
If you like military ships and wedding-themed movies, My Mother’s Wedding should satisfy you.
P.S. Scarlett Johansson is such a superb actor that she may not have met with any women Royal Navy officers, but I was pleased to see that there are women who are ship commanders in the Royal Navy. Sarah West took command of the warship HMS Portland in 2011 and Claire Thompson is at the helm of the aircraft carrier the HMS Queen Elizabeth. If ScarJo met with any of these accomplished women, I bet she didn’t tell them that her comedian husband bought a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry along with fellow Saturday Night Live cast member, Pete Davidson. Their dream of converting the boat into an entertainment venue remains unrealized.
PPS. Kristin Scott Thomas dedicates the film to her father and stepfather, former UK military pilots.
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