Venue | Star Cinema Sidney |
---|---|
Director | Darren Thornton |
Length | 89 mins |
Rating | Not Rated (19+ Screening) |
$14.29 Plus Service Fee
Director: Darren Thornton
Ireland, UK / 2024 / Comedy Drama / 89 min
London Film Festival Audience Award Winner
Synopsis
Four Mothers marks a return for Irish writer-director Thornton, whose 2016 debut A Date for Mad Mary charmed festival audiences around the world. Four Mothers, his second feature, is a reinterpretation of Gianni Di Gregorio’s 2008 film Mid-August Lunch, a Chekhovian drama about an Italian mother and son, facing the realities of older age.
In Four Mothers, the sundrenched streets of Rome are replaced with grey suburban Ireland, but all the colour you could ever need is provided by co-writer Colin Thorton’s witty dialogue, which is infused with an astute and perceptive grasp of queer belonging and friendship.
Edward is in his mid-thirties. He’s a single gay man, writing young adult novels about queer romance, though his own romantic escapades on the local dating scene leave much to be desired. Played brilliantly by relative newcomer James McArdle, (a Scotsman best known for his work on stage and TV, here adopting a convincing Irish accent with all the required charm for the silver screen!) Edward cares dutifully for his mother, Alma, who at 81, occupies much of his time after being restricted to a wheelchair following a severe stroke. Of course, Edward’s love for Alma is not without frustration – especially as he tries to juggle the commitments of an impending US Book tour. Edward finds solidarity and comic relief in his community of gay friends—Colm (Gearoid Farrelly), Billy (Gordon Hickey), and his closeted, recently-divorced therapist Dermot (Rory O’Neill)—all of whom are also stuck in suffocating relationships with their mothers. However, when they plan a Pride Holiday to reclaim their freedom, Edward is unexpectedly left to care for all four mothers at once.
Four Mothers is a profoundly touching portrait of family love and commitment, and all the complexities that can entangle us in situations of caregiving that stretch beyond our control. Thornton beautifully weaves a narrative of friendship, community, and humour into this web of familial duty, underlining them as a vital lifeline that in turn keeps the carer feeling alive. – JD