Directed by Eva Husson
Written by Alice Birch
Starring Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Josh O’Connor
Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity and some language
Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes
Currently in theaters

by Fiona Underhill, Contributor

World War One is woefully underrepresented in movies, perhaps because there’s less opportunity for Americans to demonstrate the gung-ho “we swooped in and saved Europe” narrative a la Saving Private Ryan. In the field of lesser-known British film and TV however, it is still a subject that serves as a backdrop to many heart-wrenching stories, not least on the theme of love.

Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday (based on the novel by Graham Swift) is one such tale and very much demonstrates that even in the rarefied world of the upper classes, the devastation of losing virtually all of the young men in the village meant that the war couldn’t easily be moved on from. It focuses on three tight-knit and interwoven families of the upper crust – firstly, there’s Colin Firth and Olivia Colman who play the Nivens, who have lost their two sons. Then there’s Craig Crosbie and Emily Woof, who play the Sheringhams, who have also lost two sons, but one, Paul (Josh O’Connor) remains. And finally, there’s Simon Shepherd and Caroline Harker, who play the Hobdays – they have a daughter Emma (Emma D’Arcy) who was betrothed to one of the Sheringham boys, but now Paul must step up and do his duty by taking his place.

At the center of the narrative though is the Nivens’ maid Jane (Odessa Young), who has been having a long-running affair with Paul, which she knows must come to an end in the weeks leading up to his marriage. The film flits between the main narrative which takes place on Mothering Sunday 1924, but flashes back briefly to 1918 (when Jane and Paul first met) and also flashes forward to the 1930s, when Jane is in a relationship with Donald (Sope Dirisu). There are also flashes of what is probably the 1980s, when Jane is now a successful writer, played by Glenda Jackson.

Mothering Sunday succeeds more in its direction than writing, which does not leave its literary origins behind. The dialogue is stilted and contrived in a way that you can imagine working on the page but doesn’t translate well to the screen. Given that Alice Birch successfully adapted Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth and Sally Rooney’s Normal People for the screen, it’s surprising that the writing is a weak element here. Much stronger aspects of the film are Jamie Ramsay’s cinematography and Helen Scott’s production design, which combine to give the feeling of series of still-lifes being visited by Jane, particularly in the sequence when she wanders the Sheringham’s house naked (she’ll catch her death!).

The acting is another highlight, with O’Connor and Dirisu being typically impressive in their supporting roles. Firth and Colman are also reliably excellent, with Mr Niven determined to remain chipper in the face of devastating loss and Colman giving one of her now renowned emotional meltdowns. There are parallels to be drawn between Colman’s role here and her Oscar-nominated turn in The Lost Daughter. They are both complex portraits of motherhood, with Mrs Niven wandering if it would have been better not to have had her sons at all, rather than to endure the pain of their loss.

At the center of Mothering Sunday is young Australian actress Odessa Young and she once again, commands the screen as she did in 2020’s Shirley (which co-starred Elisabeth Moss). Still only in her early twenties, she’s already proving to be a formidable screen presence, who has that magnetic “it” factor that means it is difficult to tear your eyes away from her. She doesn’t have an easy job here, traversing maybe twenty years in a young woman’s life. It’s a shame that the later section, that shows Jane’s relationship with Donald, isn’t given equal weight as the one with Paul.

Mothering Sunday won’t be for everyone as kind of is the epitome of what some see as dry, dusty British period pieces. But Husson twists this perception to her advantage, leaning into the museum-like quality of the stately homes and creating a film that is very much about the past and about memory. Paul’s parents’ generation would remain in a kind of suspended animation after losing their sons. But the youth who survived the first world war would go onto be the bohemians of the 20s and 30s, what Fitzgerald would dub “the beautiful and damned,” living life to the fullest. That is, until the shadow of war loomed once more.

Husson makes a memorable impression with her directorial choices here and the young cast more than holds their own against veterans Firth and Colman. It’s a shame that the writing is the weak link of this film, but the positives of Mothering Sunday outweigh the negatives.