Mother's Day

Story: Mother’s Day sees a small group of unconnected people try to mend relationships with their respective mothers and daughters. Sandy (Anniston) tries to be a better mom to her kids after her divorce from Henry (Olyphant). Successful writer Miranda (Roberts) is estranged from her daughter Kristin (Robertson). And free-spirited Jesse (Hudson) tries to reconnect with her own mother.

Review: It’s a bit surprising to see a director like Garry Marshall, who has a resume that dates way back to the 60s, now immerse himself in this kind of confection (literally, for the number of doughnuts, desserts and M&M candy references you’ll see in this movie), which strives to make you sentimental about your mother, with an overloaded cast of characters, for two hours.



First, the good bits. Julia Roberts still has it. She’s still got the kind of smile that can brighten up a room and warm the coldest of hearts. And when we do see her on screen, she owns it. Incidentally, if you’re a diehard Pretty Woman fan, you might notice a line in the film, where Roberts’ best-known movie is referenced. Elizondo (who plays Lance Wallace, a celebrity manager) who also co-starred with Roberts in Pretty Woman makes a pointed reference to that flick with a comment about dinner table etiquette regarding salad forks. Elsewhere, Sudeikis provides for the majority of the humour quotient.

And then, the not-so-good bits; it’s a tad unfortunate to see Aniston hamming it up to the high heavens, doing what she has been doing in rom-coms since, well, forever. Then there’s a standup British comedian who is Miranda’s daughter Kristin’s partner, and they have a baby. They both want to get married but Kristin is confused about her identity. Sounds confusing? You bet it is, and needlessly so. Blame the poor editing for not stitching together a film that has several parallel – albeit, pretty simple – stories but no coherent flow that holds it all together.

All said and done, the two strongest points of this film would basically be Julia Roberts and a bit of slapstick humour.