Four Mothers
2024
Certificate 15 – COMEDY/DRAMA
Director: Darren Thornton
With James McArdle, Fionnula Flanagan
Runtime: 89 mins
Loosely based on Gianni Di Gregorio’s hit Italian comedy-drama Mid-August Lunch (2008). Edward (James McArdle), an anxiety-ridden gay man in his thirties, is scheduled for a tour of the US to promote his breakout novel. But his elderly mum Alma (Fionnula Flanagan) is recovering from a stroke, and Edward is her primary carer. To compound his difficulties, his three friends decide to take a weekend break to Gran Canaria for Maspalomas Pride, and dump their own mothers on the doorstep of the small Dublin semi that Edward shares with Alma.
WHY WATCH THIS FILM? For the interactions between the four women.
“Four Mothers is a charmer of a picture that lures us in with Edward’s angst but hits its stride when it digs into the dynamics between the four women who run Edward ragged with their catering requests and incessant bickering. What could have been a sentimental plodder gets a pleasingly acerbic tang from the bracing cattiness of the dialogue.” The Guardian
“A chaotic but sweet and frequently amusing tale as Edward deals with the demands and needs of four very different women, balancing caring for the women alongside participating in increasingly disastrous pre-tour interviews about his book. The audience can sense his panicked air of disbelief at his current predicament, and McArdle wonderfully sells this.” The Upcoming