Mother of the Bride, Netflix film review

Strange world that of screenwriters. As observers of reality, they scrutinize the changing fashions, the chasing social needs, and the currents of the moment, and then take every single element and throw it into a cauldron, mixing and amalgamating their ingredients, in the hope of making magic. They give life to new existences, two-dimensional lives, places waiting to take shape in front of the camera. Yet, in the genetic code of these new personalities, many nucleotides are the same and identical to those of a thousand other characters brought to the screen. A copy and paste which, on the one hand, pushes the viewer to lull himself into a reassuring comfort zone, on the other hand gives the work a possible predictability.

As we will point out in this review de The mother of the bride, the characters who inhabit this cinematic microcosm signed by Netflix, live on continuous scraps borrowed from other worlds, other existences. Playing on a direct reference to the much more famous Father of the Bride, the film directed by Mark Waters and played by Brooke Shields And Miranda Cosgroveattempts to submit to a general interest in the female (and feminist) question by changing the father-daughter relationship of the cult directed by Charles Shyer (and before him in 1950 by Vincente Minnelli) towards a mother-daughter dichotomy that does not lead to any generational gap, or to any conflict zone. Everything sails on the surface of calm waters, moved by light waves, capable on the one hand of emphasizing that sense of lightheartedness that covers every sequence, but on the other of flattening a script that could have exploited situations and events more thoroughly, hiding behind the implications tragicomic, deeper and socially relevant meanings. And so, the screenwriters’ magic was halfway accomplished.

The mother of the bride: the plot

Lana is a successful geneticist and has a daughter, Emma, ​​who lives in London with her boyfriend, working as an influencer and ambassador for a luxury hotel chain. One day Emma returns to the United States to give her mother incredible news: in a month she will get married to RJ in a magnificent resort in Thailand. And it is precisely here that Lana will discover that RJ is actually the son of Will, her great love from university days. What will happen between Lana and Will? Will they ruin the wedding by venting their resentment over their big missed opportunity or will they try to start over where they left off thirty years earlier?

Mother’s (narrative) heart

What is the main focus of a work like The mother of the bride it can be found in the title that precedes and presents the film itself: no more conflicting relationships between parents and children; Now the figure of Lana becomes the focal point, the main artery of the entire story. A lighthouse that recalls the existential ships of characters at the mercy of their own personal currents, the mother of the title awkwardly juggles her daughter’s marriage and a rediscovered relationship with her college sweetheart. The misunderstandings, the activities to be carried out in the Thai resort where Emma and RJ’s wedding will be celebrated, and the misadventures bordering on slapstick, are all funny gags, which raise a smile, although recovered from a corollary already tested over the years. An awareness that leads us to ask ourselves whether in the end we laugh at the comedy itself, or because we are confronted with a type of comedy to which we are already accustomed, and therefore predisposed to welcome it with open arms, responding to every input in a positive manner and warm.

The crisis of comedy

As enjoyable and fun as it is, The mother of the bride it is yet another proof of the unhealthy state of comedy in Hollywood. Played on a weak screenplay, Waters’ film lives on the repetition of moments already seen elsewhere (the fall into the swimming pool is a must of the genre, reiterated ad libitum and copied from cult works such as Hollywood party) without bringing anything new, without swimming in the open sea, but remaining safe close to shore. The same relationship between Lana and Emma could have focused more on disillusioned expectations of the mother of seeing their daughter excel in the field of a prestigious doctorate, while having to “content” herself with witnessing her successes in the field of social media. An inability to understand and accept the older ones towards roles and professions such as “content creators” or “influencers” that with The mother of the bride it had the possibility of being treated in depth, with a touch of irony, but instead it was only grazed, touched, to then be abandoned far away, in deep waters.

The soothing waters of laughter

That The mother of the bride intends to be a work of pure escapism, without many aspirations or outbursts of presumption, appears clear from the first second. A declaration of intent made explicit by every element placed in the field, and now called upon to construct a small moment of pure entertainment through which the spectator can carve out a moment of his own, far from thoughts or constant daily disturbances. She wants to be one a hand that tickles, a drink that relaxes, The mother of the bride. And so nothing must interfere in the spontaneity of the work, thanks to constantly bright photography, played on bright colors, and charged performances, so that every smile, or frowning expression, is emphasized and immediately understood by the audience.

The clothes themselves, light and with floral prints, refer to an earthly paradise that lulls and nurtures the minds of the spectators, exacerbating that sense of leisure at the basis of the film. Brooke Shields is not afraid to tackle a role that is much more psychologically characterized than the one foreseen by the script, giving his Lana a three-dimensional character that would otherwise be lost in the flow of images. Less impactful is Benjamin Bratt, locked in the stereotyped role of the charming man ready to revolutionize the lives of the protagonists, reiterating actions and situations already seen and internalized previously.

From an earthly paradise, Thailand now becomes a cinematic postcard full of clichés of the genre and missed opportunities. A work of shooting and continuous editing, where the shots and reverse shots do not leave time to internalize and understand the emotional storms that hit the characters, so that a close-up is immediately replaced by another. And so, as funny and light-hearted as it is, The Mother of the Bride often risks being reduced to a tourist promotion video, of those made by the character Emma, ​​rather than a comedy to be appreciated, liked, remembered.