There are impressive performances from Sienna Miller and Emily Beecham but this comedy drama of sisters coming together for a wedding is forgettable
This year’s unusual fall festival season, almost entirely devoid of stars and missing some notable big titles, continues with a hushed kick-off for Toronto, a red carpet rolled out but left mostly untrodden. It was as muted inside as it was outside for the premiere of My Mother’s Wedding (once called North Star), a rather underwhelming family drama that marks the directorial debut of Kristin Scott Thomas, an actor who one can never see enough of in front of the camera but one who hasn’t quite proved her worth behind it just yet, her film never deserving anything more than a shrug.
Not that her low-key story of sisters reuniting for their mother’s wedding was ever intended to grab us by the shoulders – it’s far too gentle for that – but it should at least carry with it a great deal more charm or character than it does, something that no amount of idyllic English countryside shots can fix. Using a key element of her own family history as well as the tone of her one-time colleague Richard Curtis, Scott Thomas has introduced herself as a mostly competent film-maker but as a screenwriter with important lessons to learn. Co-written with journalist John Micklethwait, North Star is a film that often finds an interesting or challenging idea, only to leave it unexplored or cast aside in the place of something drabber instead. It’s a soft-pedalled soap with stars who know and can do better.
Continue reading...
There are impressive performances from Sienna Miller and Emily Beecham but this comedy drama of sisters coming together for a wedding is forgettableThis year’s unusual fall festival season, almost entirely devoid of s...
See more
