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Recent releases:
- That They May Face the Rising Sun
- Jericho Ridge
- Civil War
- Mothers' Instinct
- Sweet East, The
- Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire
- Immaculate
- Roaring Twenties, The (reissue)
- Soul
- Dune: part two
- American Star
- Dune: Part 1 (reissue)
- Jerry & Marge Go Large
- Argylle
- Forever Young
- Jackdaw
- All of Us Strangers
- Holdovers, The
- Mean Girls
- Poor Things
Mother's Day
Stars: Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts, Jason Sudeikis, Britt Robertson, Timothy Olyphant, Hector Elizondo, Jack Whitehall, Jennifer Garner, Aasif Mandvi, Sarah Chalke, Cameron Esposito, Anoush NaVart, Jon Lovitz
Director: Garry Marshall
What you get here rather resembles the pilot for a television sitcom series a pilot that is more likely to crash than take off.
Among those involved are Jennifer Aniston (as uncharismatic as ever ) who seeks happiness after her husband divorces her, plus Kate Hudson (barely registering) hoping to persuade her racist parents to accept her Asian husband. As well, making family relationships worse, her sister is a married lesbian. And, just in time to make little impact, Jack Whitehall impersonates an aspirant English stand-up comedian seeking to persuade the mother of his child to marry him
Theres more, all of it adding up to less, including Julia Roberts in a ludicrous red wig, and a smile that is a tribute to American dentistry, while Timothy Olyphant and Jennifer Garner are also on board the sinking ship without any screenplay or directorial lifebelts to save them.
The stars are not credited at the start of the film which is their good luck since my best guess is that by the time they are identified in the end credits many moviegoers will have already left or, luckier than I was, be fast asleep.
Alan Frank
USA 2016. UK Distributor: LionsGate. Colour.
113 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.
Review date: 16 Oct 2016