Movie Review: Mother’s Day
Garry Marshall likes two things late in his directorial career: holidays and large casts. He first tackled Valentine’s Day with the star-studded film Valentine’s Day, then New Year’s Eve with an even more star-powered New Year’s Eve, and now Mother’s Day in his new film, you guessed it, Mother’s Day. Although the cast is not as large as his other two holiday romantic comedies, there’s still no lack of A-list talent in Mother’s Day.
Leading the way is Jennifer Aniston who plays a recently divorced mother of two sons who has to deal with her ex-husband, Timothy Olyphant, marrying a hot twenty-something. There’s also Kate Hudson who is constantly fighting with her mother, Margo 
Martindale, who decides to visit to celebrate the holiday with her two daughters. Then there’s also Britt Robertson’s character who is struggling with being a new mother, the idea of marriage, and finding out who her mother is. That summary doesn’t even include Jason Sudiekis’ plot, Julia Roberts’ character, Kate Hudson’s sister, and Jennifer Garner’s cameo.
There are a solid four plots going on in Mother’s Day, and they all have their own subplots and character arcs, which doesn’t mean it’s necessarily hard to keep track, it’s just hard to care about one or more of the characters when there are so many. By the time the audience starts connecting with one of them, the film jumps to another character that’s loosely connected to another character, and then jumps again, and again, and again. The film doesn’t flow very well, and although there are some humorous moments sprinkled throughout, it does not add up to much.
Something that keeps the film watchable is the talented cast. Aniston is probably the film’s strongest highlight as she is able to be simultaneously funny, emotional, and adds the most realism to her character. Sudeikis does something similar with his character and the two are a joy whenever they are on screen at the same time. (Always great to have a We’re the Millers reunion) The rest of the cast does an admirable job, but their characters are given far less to work with. The characters are mostly one-dimensional and are pigeon holed into clichéd character arcs, and although the cast is able to squeeze a couple of laughs out of the situations, it mostly just comes off as predictable and disappointing.
I cannot speak for the other Garry Marshall directed star-studded holiday romantic comedies since I have not seen them, but Mother’s Day is just another clichéd comedy. It will make you laugh a couple times and the cast makes some scenes watchable, but there are certainly better ways we can honor our mothers. Maybe Marshall can make something memorable when he decides to tackle Flag Day.
Scott Davis
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