MOTHER’S DAY (PG-13)

Released by Open Road Films
Reviewed by Adam Mast

NEW YEAR’S EVE, VALENTINE’S DAY, and now, MOTHER’S DAY.  In his golden years, PRETTY WOMAN and PRINCESS DIARIES director Garry Marshall has established himself as the Irwin Allen (THE TOWERING INFERNO) of  the holiday inspired all-star comedy ensemble. How is MOTHER’S DAY? Well, the timing of its release couldn’t be any more appropriate and while it isn’t as bad as EXIT TO EDEN, it’s still a far cry from Marshall’s heyday when he was churning out solid 80’s fare like THE FLAMINGO KID, OVERBOARD,  and the underrated Tom Hanks/Jackie Gleason headlined NOTHING IN COMMON.

MOTHER’S DAY weaves its intersecting subplots around–you guessed it!–Mother’s Day. The film follows a handful of various moms as they navigate through complicated relationships, deal with overbearing parents, come to terms with their identities, and engage in that crazy adventure called motherhood.

MOTHER’S DAY features an impressive roster of talent including Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Britt Robertson, Jennifer Garner, Sarah Chalke, and Cameron Esposito,  and while all of these ladies have moments here, they are ultimately let down by a screenplay that is clichéd, overstuffed, obvious, and, at times, even a little bit insulting. It’s all further proof that star power only gets you so far.

Speaking of star power, in addition to the aforementioned actresses who headline this picture, MOTHER’S DAY  also features supporting turns by Timothy Olyphant, Jack Whitehall, an amusing but under utilized Jon Lovitz, and, of course, Marshall mainstay,  Hector Elizondo, and while MOTHER’S DAY is essentially a movie about women, one might find it a little odd that the most engaging performance in this picture comes to us courtesy of Jason Sudeikis. The ex-SNL funnyman is terrifically appealing as a single dad doing his best to raise two young daughters. Despite the pink pants (Aniston argues that they’re actually salmon-colored), Sudeikis makes quite an impression here.

MOTHER’S DAY  has moments of warmth and humor but very little here truly resonates.  Furthermore, a lot of the jokes fall painfully flat while others are surprisingly off color.  Lively Margo Martindale and Robert Pine spend a great deal of this picture making jokes at the expense of Hudson’s Indian husband (Aasif Mandvi) and Chalke’s life partner (Esposito),  and while it’s true, these jokes are meant to show viewers how stupid, ignorant, and small minded these particular Texans can be in this overly PC world (of course, they had to be Texans, didn’t they?), such shenanigans only add to this film’s surface level trappings.

As I sat through this simple-minded and very predictable movie, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Ron Howard’s expertly crafted PARENTHOOD from 1989. That film juggled several thematically connected plot threads too, but it did so with a grander sense of sincerity and truth. MOTHER’S DAY by comparison plays more like last year’s overwrought Christmas flick, LOVE THE COOPERS. This isn’t to say that this movie wont have an audience. It’s harmless enough, and there were plenty of folks laughing and crying throughout the  screening I attended.

Certainly, there are worse films you could take your mom to see on Mother’s Day  (THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR,  yuck.) Having said that though, this particular movie fan can only hope that Garry Marshall refrains from subjecting dads to FATHER’S DAY.