My Mother's Wedding

Bluesky

Here is Kristen Scott-Thomas' directorial début. It's got autobiographical elements, it was news to me not only that she's a armed forces brat but that her father and then stepfather shared a first name, were both in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, and were both lost in aircraft accidents. That's detail she and her siblings share with her on-screen daughters, as in addition to co-writing she's also part of a frankly ludicrous cast.

Those daughters are Emily Beecham, perhaps best seen in Edinburgh Film Festival acting prizewinner Daphne, Sienna Miller, of a fair few more roles some of which rise above others, and Scarlett Johansson, of too many roles to mention. Georgina (Beecham) is the youngest, a nurse; Victoria (Miller) the middle child, an actress in an apparently somewhat rubbish fantasy or science-fiction franchise; and Katherine (Johansson) a commanding officer in the Royal Navy. It's a small note that since this film was shot her promotion has an equivalent in real life, albeit with the sister vessel of the ship in question. There's perhaps no point in not spoiling that, as these similarities, accidental or otherwise, are about all that My Mother's Wedding has going for it.

It's not bad. Faint praise, but for all the leading lights there are various shadows cast. Scott-Thomas co-writes with John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief at Bloomberg News and previously in the same role (albeit pseudonymously) at THe Economist. They were in a relationship then, subsequently married. It's a début feature film for him too. That makes the struggle I had to recall if two of its many women had a conversation about something other than a man. It's complicated as some of those men are dead, others offspring, some keen ornithologists, others unfaithfully interested in other kinds of bird.

That 'subsequently married' is because the film was at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023, apparently had a limited US release last year, and is only now, in 2026, coming to British screens. Projects can and do spend years on the shelf before release, but it's rare. Rarer still when there are quite as many famous faces involved. In an era where films can be canned, in various senses, for tax advantage, it is at least something that audiences are getting the chance to see it.

That timing oddity separately affects the film. It has pacing issues from having quite so many moving parts and while its 95 minutes pass pleasantly enough there are moments that drag while others feel rushed. There are a couple of moments that might be meant to be a surprise but at least one of them is after sufficiently careful construction that the outcome isn't unexpected. There are threads unpulled, elements unexplored, and while the use of animation is a nice touch, not least for the efficiency of sketching flashbacks to broad strokes and essential details, it's one of few novelties.

Michel Spicer turns up early as a late-night host in the vein of Jimmy Kimmel, and his isn't the only accent with elements of transatlantic substitution. There might have been something in the air in 2023 as Marcus Brigstock had a similarly jarring role in Magic Mike's Last Dance. Disbelief isn't suspended by single lines, but by their interaction. There's a final shot in My Mother's Wedding that depicts a triumphant moment, culmination of what's gone before, a sweeping piece of film-making made possible by drone technology. Its arrival is signaled by a sudden change in resolution, perhaps as jarring as the drop to GoPro footage when some Hobbits end up in barrels. The problem is not that it doesn't look as good as the rest of the film, but that its emotional impact isn't enough to make one think about anything other than how many meetings there must have been to make it possible. In casting its net My Mother's Wedding has just a few too many gaps. For all the paperwork some parts must have involved, it's not enough to cover the cracks. However large its participants may be in their respective ponds, here they're out of water.

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