Joyeuse Fête des Mères

This film tells the stories of several mothers who spend Mother's Day in different ways.

"Mother's Day" can easily draw families to the cinema, because of its topic and the number of big stars. I watched it for Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston, but I was rather disappointed by it. These ensemble comedies have so many subplots and so many characters, that none of them are fully developed. As a result, I don't really know the characters well enough to care for any of them.

the Kate Hudson subplot is funny and entertaining enough, providing the comic relief. The Julia Roberts subplot is very disappointing, because it could have been so much better. She could have made a touching announcement on TV, which would have a far greater impact on the viewers. Instead, something else happened on TV which I don't care for at all.

"Mother's Day" had so much potential, but wasted the concept and the talent involved.

We went for some light entertainment & knew what to expect and we were NOT DISAPPOINTED ! What do the critics expect - every movie to be a potential Academy Award nominee ? Sometimes I like serious movies, like Spotlight which I enjoyed very much & knew beforehand what I was going to see. Same with this movie; sometimes light entertainment is fine. I knew it wasn't going to be a physical comedy, I knew there were no action scenes and that was fine tonight. It's what I chose to see and we enjoyed it. I also liked Gary Marshall's other two multi-storied, holiday movies even though they were panned by the critics too. Each separate story with different casts are basically short so you're bound to like some of them. I can't see how you could dislike everyone & their story lines. Of course there are corny jokes and references to other movies --so what? Biggest thing with me was that after seeing The Boss on Tuesday, I was not offended by anything in this movie. I was extremely offended by many situations & mostly the language in The Boss. I found The Boss to be extremely offensive hearing such crude sexual references in all the dialogue filled with the F word, etc. This movie has none of that. It's not crude, offensive nor inappropriate for kids and that says a lot about Gary Marshall and his movies.

I'm really disappointed with this movie. Scenario had only couple funny sentences, and that's it, and I assume this should be a comedy. If you expecting romantic movie you will be disappointed, because the only thing we see there is some people with some inessential problems, and making big thing out of it. Slow development of story, although is unpredictable because you can't expect that someone will devote such attention on not important details. The only bright thing in this movie is cast, which is making me confused why did they do this especially Sudeikis. It's cast with big experience i just don't understand need for this.

Mother's Day had a very promising story which was ruined by utterly poor execution and a complete waste of acting talent which was loaded due to the casting of the movie.

Story (7/10): Well, nothing was so much wrong with the story. Four different lives, four different challenges and at some point of time, they cross the paths - and all of it is centered around the hullabaloo of Mother's Day. They all have their own theories and ideas for the big day but they end up doing almost nothing that they originally thought of - and that's where teeny tiny bit of the fun lies in the movie. A well conceptualized story though.

Acting (5/10): Acting is where this entire movie falls apart in spite of big names like Julia Roberts and Jennifer Anniston. Anniston still seems to be in that "Friends" zone with her dialog delivery. The expressions are off and doesn't seem to be in the character really, except for last few minutes in the climax. Julia Roberts holds pretty much a flat face throughout the movie. Jason Sudeiki was probably the only saving grace. The rest of the cast makes a decent attempt but aren't able to lift up the movie.

Direction (4/10): The direction of the movie is awful. Close to half of the movie misses the flow and the scenes look like stitched together as the director struggles to smoothly transition from one story to another. The screenplay is pathetic and isn't able to hold the audience more than few seconds. It is only at the end that things come together when the four characters converge. However, the overall execution of the movie "executes" the story. It just looks like the director suddenly realized that Mother's Day is arriving and he has to release a movie before that.

Overall (5/10): Poorly executed. Should give it a pass.

Garry Marshall died this year after a very long career of feel goo films he wrote, directed, acted in, produced – and sometimes all simultaneously, both on television (The Odd Couple, Mork and Mindy, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley) and in movies (Beaches, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, The Other Sister, The Princess Diaries, Valentine's Day, New year's Eve, etc). He often worked with the same actors – a trusted bond of friendship. While MOTHER'S DAY my not be one of his best films, it completes his trilogy of holiday films and brings the usual warmth and keen observation of interpersonal relationships to play from a richly popular cast of fine actors.

Three generations come together in the week leading up to Mother's Day. Sandy (Jennifer Anniston), a divorcée who has two sons who tries to co-parent with her ex (Timothy Olyphant). But when her ex remarries a girl half her age (Shay Mitchell), she freaks out because she's spending time with her sons and doing things with them that she usually does. Her friend, Jesse (Kate Hudson) is surprised by her parents (Margo Martindale and Robert Pine) who show up unannounced and they discover who Jesse's Indian husband (Aasif Mandvi) is and he learns that she didn't tell them about him which prompts him to leave, And they also learn whom their other daughter Gabi (Sarah Chalke) Is married to Max (Cameron Esposito) in a lesbian marriage. Kristin (Britt Robertson) is a girl who has a boyfriend Zach (Jack Whitehall) and a child but her boyfriend wants them to go to the next level, marriage but she has unresolved issues which keeps her from taking the plunge and her boyfriend is uncertain how long he can wait. Things change a bit when Kristin discovers who her birth mother is…. Bradley (Jason Sudeikis) is a widower with two daughters, one of whom is a teenager and Bradley finds it hard to accept her new interests like boys and he still misses his wife. It all comes together at Mother's Day – time heals all things.

Also in the cast are Julia Roberts, Hector Elizondo, Anoush NeVart, Jennifer Garner, Jon Lovitz – and many others in small but significant cameos.

Watch for the pleasure of seeing fine actors get a little silly and for the pleasure Garry Marshall brought to the entertainment industry.