In her review of Graham Swift’s 2016 novel Mothering Sunday, New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani wrote that it felt less “self-consciously literary” than the writer’s previous novels; conversely, the film adaptation—written by Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth, Hulu’s Normal People) and directed by French filmmaker Eva Husson (Girls of the Sun)—feels cinematically mannered, trading in devices that seem designed to elicit wonder. Set on the titular UK holiday, the story revolves around Jane (Odessa Young), an orphaned maid who’s been embroiled in a lengthy affair with the son (Josh O’Connor) of an affluent family. The narrative covers two tragic developments that take place decades apart, resulting in Jane finding her voice as a writer. Lingering amid the aftermath of World War I, which claimed the lives of several sons between Jane’s employers and her lover’s family, and sporadically jumping to Jane’s later years with another paramour, the film attempts a grand statement about the human condition. These may have worked on the page, but onscreen they’re rendered too sentimentally to make a significant impact. There’s a Malickian quality to the film that’s cheesy at moments, and the disjointed chronology is more aggravating than affecting. British heavyweights Colin Firth and Olivia Colman star as Jane’s employers; they give solid performances, but their characters are infected with the same slight dreariness that permeates the film as a whole. R, 104 min.
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