Cheerful Weather for the Wedding

Inside a storm is brewing!

Director Donald Rice and writer Mary Henely-Magill have created a wonderful story about a collection of maybe stereotypical British characters gathered together at a grand country side estate for a wedding.

The bride, Dolly, realizes she's making a mistake to marry Luke because she still loves Joseph. Joseph shows up to hopefully rescue her from this mistake. But circumstance and the lack of courage in both leave both brokenhearted.

The house fills with silly and forceful characters that create a day of confusion and anger. This is a fun and thoughtful film for those who can tune into subdued British humor.

I'm not sure it's essential, but a love of all things English is surely an asset when approaching this movie. Peopled by a menagerie of eccentric, frustrating, and ultimately endearing characters, the movie's appeal lies in the brilliance of its script and the interest it ultimately engenders in its many protagonists.

Set in a stately country home in perhaps the 1930s, the movie covers the events of one morning and afternoon. Dolly is about to wed Owen, yet Joseph turns up the morning of the wedding. We find that there had been a whirlwind romance between Joseph and Dolly the previous summer, that Dolly's mother was against the match, and now Joseph returns at the 11th hour to perhaps intervene?

There are far too many supporting characters to mention, and they are essential to the movie's success, but the emotional focus is entirely on Dolly and Joseph. The story of their past romance is artfully narrated in a series of flashbacks (the colour palette changes each time we flash back) which interweave nicely with the events of the wedding day. The emotion between them is portrayed with sensitivity and realism; their interactions with those around them (who are mostly oblivious to what is going on) are often funny but also laced with pathos. The various zany antics that set the backdrop for this drama are hilarious in themselves, and there is a nice blend of humour and gravity to keep one attentive. The house, the gardens, the fashions are all splendid.

What the movie lacks is some greater theme or message; it's about a particular love story between a particular man and woman, but beyond that, one doesn't leave with anything more substantial. Nonetheless, it's a pleasure to watch.

If you like English culture, if you enjoy scintillating, witty repartee, then "Cheerful Weather" is sure to please. If you find the English upper crust snobby and boring, well, you might be better off staying away.

A subtle tale of families and romance and reality, beautifully shot, with an underlying humour and sadness. The interplay of characters was brilliant. Loved it.

Because of the presence of Elizabeth McGovern and other similar traits of an early 20th century English estate family, this movie felt like a failed script for the TV program Downton Abbey. There was no particular compelling reason for this story to be greenlit in the manner it was produced except to take advantage of this similarity.

It's nice to see the subtle anti-romance character traits of the two leads play out over the narrative, but it's more curiously interesting than it is intensely interesting. The sophomoric foreshadowing and symbolism feel extremely contrived and almost insulting. The scenes that should be amusing are not amusing. The cleverish storytelling isn't clever enough to make you want to care about anyone or what happens to them. And the big reveal isn't at all revelatory, but serves more as a device to unlock the grand mystery of why these people behave the way they do. Sad to say, the mystery isn't all that grand and the viewer is left with the bad taste of being inexpertly manipulated.

Ah, the British! They have their eccentricities that have been providing fodder for little films for years - from the great stories of EM Forster, Evelyn Waugh, Julian Fellowes et al to the little dramadies such as this one written by director Donald Rice with Mary Henely-Magill, CHEERFUL WEATHER FOR THE WEDDING. They come off best when the odd class-oriented families take themselves seriously, covering their narrow view of the world of civility with accents so thick and rapidly delivered that without subtitles it is difficult to follow the script! But they are enchanting, especially when delivered by a cast of superb actors who are able to enter these odd characters' psyches and make us titter while we endure their snobbishness.

This film is meticulously presented and is both a celebration of English eccentricity and an understated examination of how families often do everything they can to avoid saying how they really feel. Dolly Thatcham (Felicity Jones) is to be married to the wealthy Owen (James Norton) after a very brief engagement: Dolly delays her preparations for the ceremony by drinking rum upstairs as she has flashbacks to her real romance a summer ago with the young professor Joseph Patten (Luke Treadaway) whom Dolly has invited to the wedding (to her mother's (Elizabeth McGovern) chagrin and Joseph waits downstairs with the entire bizarre family and friends awaiting Dolly's descent to proceed to the church. The story is interrupted with all manner of subplots including the strange behavior of Dolly's younger sister Kitty (Ellie Kendrick) who provides the audience with a naïveté that reveals so much about what everyone else is really thinking but just can't bring themselves to say.

Among the entertaining eccentrics having luncheon before the wedding are the bickering married couple (Fenella Woolgar and Mackenzie Crook) attempting to stop their son young Jimmy (Ben Greaves-Neil) from setting off little bombs throughout the house, aging but silly Aunt Bella (Barbara Flynn) seducing her chauffeur (Emil Lager), the perennial old maid Miss Spoon (Joanna Hole), the day's drunk Tom (Olly Alexander) and of course the only people about whom we care - the servants (Eva Traynor, Paola Dionisotti, Sophie Stanton, Kenneth Collard. The use of flashbacks to give us insight into Dolly's dilemma of marrying for convenience instead of for love is beautifully handled by creating a golden glow touch to the sequences from the past by cinematographer John Lee and a lovely musical score by Michael Price. And in a final farewell speech Joseph manages to put everything in its rightful place. It all works well, but put on the subtitles or you'll be in the dark.

Grady Harp