Four Mothers at London Film Festival review: This Irish ode to oldies is like a big warm hug

Four Mothers premiered at the London Film Festival on 13 October. Our rating: ★★★★

Irish writer siblings Colin and Darren Thornton’s rumination on the challenges of balancing family life with personal ambition embraces like a big warm hug. 

Four Mothers follows Edward, a queer 30-something writer whose book on teenage trauma has found success in the US. He’s preparing to leave Ireland to go on a promotional tour but plans are complicated when his two best friends leave their elderly mothers to cohabit with him and his own live-in mum. After suffering a stroke and losing her voice, it’s no surprise that she doesn’t much fancy the idea of two octogenarian roommates. 

As stories go, it’s a bit silly, but buy into the Meet the Fockers chaos and be rewarded with depictions of warring elders so hilariously relatable they may feel a little too close for comfort. Adapted from Gianni Di Gregorio’s 2008 London Film Festival winner Mid-August Lunch, Thornton’s script commendably depicts the knotty realities of senior care. The group of live-in oldies are often belligerent and entitled; Edward’s mother is a nightmare, forever barking at her two elderly guests to “stop talking” or telling them to go home, her fingers knocking aggressively at her speech-generating device, heaping stress upon her son despite at other times showing her love for him.

Fionnula Flanagan is a force as the formidable matriarch, conveying in the swivel of an eye or long brooding pout how we don’t necessarily develop more compassion after experiencing life-altering health challenges. We can still harbour the same bitterness and resentment that we did before, and perhaps illness exacerbates that. The warring trio, completed by Dearbhla Molloy’s Jean and Stella McCusker’s Maude, have some deliciously bitchy lines to pore over, and going for the sass alone is justified. But in the end, their vitriol makes their love all the more potent.

Irish storytelling shines at the London Film Festival 2024

Despite the sometimes clunky narrative there’s depth to this story, inspired by Thornton’s own experiences of his late mother’s stroke. James McArdle depicts an Edward slowly filling up to the brim with stress and indecision about how to balance his career and family life, never quite finding within him the bombast required to get his pushy literary team off his back when his mother is barking more orders in the other ear (some of the prop parts like the pushy book publicist feel a little paper-thin). Nevertheless, McArdle delivers an engrossing portrait of self-destruction, of flesh getting consumed by intrusive powers. “Just make a decision and be done with it,” Gaetan Garcia’s ex-lower Raf tells him, knowing he needs to hear it. “It’s fine in your 20s and in your 30s you wake up scared,” Edward admits in a moment of implosion. 

Director Darren Thornton showcases the bounty of rural Dublin, and often crafts commendable, naturalistic portrayals of the physical manifestations of Edward’s mental health through a couple of unnerving panic attacks that take place in horribly public forums. They’ll be relatable to anyone who’s experienced any form of performance anxiety through work. And there are some wonderful depictions of older queers finding themselves in their 40s and 50s. “I feel stupid, I feel sexy” blurts out Edward’s friend while posing in a leather harness for the first time on the way to a night out.

With new Barry Keoghan thriller Bring Them Down premiering at the London Film Festival next week alongside five other releases, Four Mothers is yet another compelling piece of Irish storytelling.

The London Film Festival continues until 20 October and tickets are available online

Read more about Irish film-making in 2024: Five stars: Kneecap film is among the best of the year