'Mother's Day' - Like a last minute gift....well you know how that goes...
Let's face it, no one goes to a Garry Marshall film to be challenged. Much like the sitcoms he is really known for (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy), most go to Garry Marshall films to be simply entertained. Please note, I emphasized simply. Marshall's 3rd movie in his holiday trilogy (New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day), 'Mother's Day', has all of the same basic themes and story lines. While heavy with 'A' list actors, it's as if this elite group was just looking for a holiday from acting themselves.
Like the previous films of the other holidays, there are 4 intertwining stories, these set in the 'burbs of Atlanta. Sandy (the always entertaining Jennifer Aniston) is the divorced mom of two boys who has to deal with the fact that her ex-husband (Timothy Olyphant) has remarried to a woman nearly half her age. Jesse (Kate Hudson) is estranged from her mother (Margo Martindale) who doesn't approve of her relationship with her husband (something her mother does not know), a doctor from India (Aasif Mandvi), and sets up a string of mildly offensive (and ill advised) racial humor. Bradley (the equally entertaining Jason Sudeikis) is a widower with two girls whose wife (Jennifer Gardner in a cameo) died during deployment in Iraq and who is still mourning. Kristin (Britt Robertson) is a young single mother who lives with her want to be comedian boyfriend (Jack Whitehall) but is afraid to commit. Julia Roberts appears as Miranda, a Home Shopping Network celebrity who connects with several of the stories and is the mother of Kristin whom she gave up at birth (and also has a very confusing choice of hair style).
By now, I am sure you have figured out where the stories are going, my only question is how did it take four writers on this film to even put it together? The ensemble case works well together, Aniston & Sudeikis have the potential to be the next Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan romantic comedy couple, having followed up a turn in 'We Are the Millers' and I am hoping they do. It's pretty much a sitcom done with A list actors who put in a pretty decent effort. As always in a Marshall film, Hector Elizondo provides some dignified comic relief as Miranda's manager, a part he has perfected since 'Pretty Woman'.
It doesn't cause you to think very much, doesn't really make you emotional and doesn't really offend at all. In other words, it's probably the perfect 'C' movie to take Mom to on a rainy afternoon; just make sure you take her to the bargain show and spend the real money on a gift she'll actually appreciate!