Directed By Kristin Scott Thomas

Starring – Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Emily Beecham

The Plot – Three sisters (Johansson, Miller, Beecham) return to their home for the third wedding of their twice-widowed mother (Kristen Scott Thomas). But the mother and daughters are forced to revisit the past and confront the future, with help from a colorful group of unexpected wedding guests.

Rated R for adult language, some sexual material and brief nudity.

My Mother’s Wedding Trailer #1 (2025)

POSITIVES

This is obviously a deeply personal and significant film to Thomas, not only for being her directorial debut following a dazzling career as a leading lady, but also her real life ties to the story that inspired a bulk of the screenplay, painting broad strokes of intimacy between her family characters, that easily sees it as the most realized aspect of all of the material. Almost immediately, the interactions between these characters, particularly the ladies, conveys a dysfunctional reality that feeds into the many internalized pocketed conflicts between the interchangeable dynamics, and with such vibrant personalities amongst them serving as the combustible elements to the inevitable forthcoming conflict, we come to interpret that not all has been therapeutically resolved between these siblings, proving that for as close as they seem in ice-breaking interactions, they actually couldn’t be any further apart in their unresolved psychologies, imbedding an uncomfortable distancing between them that transcends the movie’s cozily claustrophobic surroundings, regardless of how broad and affectionate Thomas paints these strokes of kinetic bond between them for appearances. Speaking of surroundings, the film’s production elicits a faithful setting throughout the majority of the storytelling that feels warm and lived-in with genetic history, with charming details in the set decoration that feel too detailed to feel anything other than distinct to Thomas’ own memories. While the English countryside is a desired destination for any wedding movie, with all of its lavishly breathtaking scenery, the real scene-stealer comes from the assorted details pertaining to vintage family photos and colorful decoration that evoke such an inviting essence to the movie’s established household, proving that above all else Thomas can at least paint beautifully intoxicating imagery, even when the film surrounding her efforts seem to be constantly working against her. Last but certainly not least, the performances strike a surprising imbalance among the decorated actresses that occasionally compromise these integral interactions between them, but I found Emily Beecham’s work to easily capitalize on the deepest extent of her character’s emotional trauma, allowing her to break out of such circumstances with emotional complexity that, unlike her co-stars, allows her character to feel like a living, breathing human being in a movie full of types. Beecham’s most defining moments certainly lend themselves to those tender times during the third act where she not only is forced to confront the unresolved insensitivities of never properly burying her close-knit father, but also a surmising surprise to her own marital life that makes her effectively channel waves of unbridled angst and remorsefulness, and while I typically had great difficulty attaching myself to a majority of the characters, Beecham’s Georgina easily served as the movie’s moral compass of relatability that I had no problem empathizing with.

NEGATIVES

While there are occasionally charming aspects to Thomas’ debut directorial effort, her personal film is dashed by defining inexperience to storytelling that constantly made the movie feel like two respective films fighting for the dominance and focus of one consistent product. This is most noticeably realized in the clashing of tones between the movie’s hybrid labeling in dramedy that constantly accentuates the worst of each side, with sharply sudden melodrama materializing out of interactions where it didn’t feel even remotely earned, and crude comedic gags that feels entirely wrong for the classy kind of sophistication family narrative that Thomas builds for herself. Because you invest so little in the dimensions of these characters, as serviced by a roughly abrupt exposition dump during the movie’s opening minutes, that involves on-screen text conveying their names and career electives, and the script on its own is mundanely uncompelling and overly predictable, the dramatic beats of the material are undersold and underdeveloped in ways that never appraise any sort of palpable stakes to the family dynamic, all the while fighting against these absurdly abrasive impulses of sight and situational humor that revolves around sexual euphemisms between in-laws, and anal sex cheating tapes, to name a couple, crafting a script that wants the best of both worlds, but is unable to patiently pace itself towards attaining creative satisfaction for single one of them. In addition to frenetic tonal clashes, the film is also plagued by these strange artistic decisions in the presentation of the production that add nothing of merit or meaning to the movie’s appeal. Periodically throughout the movie, the perception of memories from Johansson’s Katherine will give way to these animated illustrations that feed in the gaps to particular traumas associated with her character, and while this would make sense if Katherine’s job was an animator of any kind, here it just feels like storyboard art of the most basic rendering come to life, in order to not have to tack on additional shoots of backstory that don’t even involve its stars, considering they’re from a younger age, and they just kind of distract and take away primary focus from the integrity of the storytelling, which is already fighting an uphill battle with a flatly uninteresting script outline and troubled performances between it. Speaking of that decorated ensemble, the inferior side to those aforementioned inconsistent performances pertain regretfully to Scarlett Johansson and Sienna Miller, who each bring tons of energy and commitment to their respective turns, but it’s unfortunately the kind that are misdirected from Thomas, without any kind of hands on criticism to channel the right personalities. For Johansson, this inferiority pertains to the decision to take on an English accent, which is warranted considering this is a family born and bred in England, but is so inconsistent and indistinct that it comes across unnaturally as someone doing an impression, instead of speaking their distinguished dialect, and it makes the bulk of her work depleted, regardless of the occasionally emotional registry that she attempts to channel. As for Miller, her turn here as Victoria is among the most memorable of the entire engagement, but constantly amounting to exaggerated deliveries that allow her to stand out as the unrestrained sis among the bunch, and while every family seemingly has one of those siblings, it just doesn’t work in the confines here of a movie that is by and large quietly subdued and emotionally stunted, appraising what is easily the most uncomfortable work of her entire career, in a role that feels plucked from an entirely different movie. Finally, the film can’t even supply therapeutic reprieve in the depths of its prolonged ending, with a film that completely refuses to end itself, even when the biggest scenes have long passed it. Considering the movie’s titular wedding takes place with about an hour left of the runtime, it’s easy enough to assume that confrontation is just what’s on the menu for this family get together, but even when that speculated climax materializes, it still leaves around twenty minutes to the engagement, so we’re given this long-winded epilogue that doesn’t add anything of concrete value to the confrontations and resolutions that we received a couple of scenes prior, leaving the final shots feeling like they ran out of film, instead of appraising sentimental meaning to its lasting images.

OVERALL
“My Mother’s Wedding” represents a psychological closure for Kristen Scott Thomas, who in her debut directorial effort can’t effectively assemble the pieces to manifest a compelling narrative, despite promising aspects that should inspire dramatic depth tension among her distanced siblings. With underwritten characters, unflatteringly clashing humor, and underwhelming performances, the film stands up its audience on the alter of expectations, in turn eliciting a ceremony of futility that you should choose to make yourself unavailable for

My Grade: 3.8 or F