<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Garry Marshall. Starring Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts, Jason Sudeikis, Britt Robertson, Timothy Olyphant, Sarah Chalke, Shay Mitchell, Jack Whitehall, Jon Lovitz, Margo Martindale, Robert Pine, Cameron Esposito, Aasif Mandvi, Hector Elizondo

Running Time: 1 hour 58 minutes

Replicating a Valentine’s Day formula film for Mother’s Day shows a complete lack of creativity on the part of a one-time great director but then Hollywood seems to have lost the plot and this film is the perfect example of how horrible things are.

Okay so Mother’s Day is May 8, for those of you who want to know. Go out and get those presents for your super hero moms now.

I’m trying to recall what exactly Mother’s Day is about. It’s certainly not about mothers. More about white urban America and their (stereo) typical lives. There are so many characters and plots in Mother’s Day that it would be impossible for me to list all of them out here without confusing the shit out of you. Hell, I can’t even remember what they were. The mishmash of horribly edited scenes and random hysterics leave you disoriented and dazed.

The women in the film are more obsessed with their ex husbands or current husbands or parents than they are about their mothers. They’re all dealing with troubled relationships and broken marriages or bonds. There’s lots of slapstick mayhem in there too that’s good for some minor laughs.

What on earth Julia Roberts is doing in this movie I can’t say. Perhaps it’s only because her favourite director and mentor Garry Marshall directs and he loves seeing her in his films alongside other favourite Hector Elizondo (both Roberts and Elizondo acted in Marshall’s Pretty Woman). Roberts has one stirring scene in the film as a mother in which she brought tears to my eyes. Someone please give this goddess a better role and movie to come back in. There’s also a scene with her and Elizondo that shows the chemistry the two share and also, I think, makes a vague reference to Pretty Woman: “You’re right, that is the salad fork.”

(Read this interesting interview: Julia Roberts and Garry Marshall continue their one-movie-per-decade streak with ‘Mother’s Day’ via Los Angeles Times)

Apart from that the plots are incoherent, with scenes randomly dropped in from different characters in an attempt to create an ensemble film the likes of New York, I Love You (also very bad).

Not once does this film capture the real essence of being a mother or the bond a mother shares with her children. In fact, Jason Sudeikis is probably the better ‘mother’ in the movie. Instead of watching Mother’s Day, go spend some quality time with your mom.

PS: If you’re wondering about all the M&M references and visual displays in the movie then this article is for you: Why Did The Mother’s Day Movie Put So Many M&M’s In This Vending Machine?