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‘Four Mothers’ Review: James McArdle Delights in a Toasty-Warm Irish Mother-Son Comedy
James McArdle stars in Darren Thornton's comedy 'Four Mothers,' a charming reinterpretation of Gianni Di Gregorio's 2008 film 'Mid-August Lunch.'
Working again with his brother Colin as co-writer, Thornton has taken as his starting point the 2008 film “Mid-August Lunch,” a witty Italian audience-pleaser from actor-filmmaker Gianni Di Gregorio, and transplanted it from the sweltering slick of high-summer Rome to the eternally overcast sweater weather of suburban Ireland. Scarcely able to untie himself from his commitments to Alma, he’s further frazzled when Colm, Billy and Dermot all head to Spain for an impromptu seaside Pride jaunt, leaving their mothers — salty Jean (Dearbhla Molloy), prim Maude (Stella McCusker) and would-be bohemian Rosey (Paddy Glynn) — in his care. A bristly straight talker forced to communicate entirely through a digital voice app, Alma is as dismayed as Edward by their sudden new houseguests, and the four women’s personality clashes can recall an especially rapier-tongued episode of “The Golden Girls.” Yet collectively, their differing views on marriage, child-rearing and their sons’ queerness amount to a thoughtful snapshot of a country in generational transition, only partially and selectively freed from the rigors of conservative Catholicism.
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