The opening night film of the Seattle International Film Festival is always chosen with care, meant to set the tone and draw a wide audience. Whether steeped in international politics, sweeping romance, or a warm-hearted dramedy, it’s usually a crowd-pleaser—something accessible, engaging, and easy to love. So you can imagine my surprise when I found myself unmoved by Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers.
The film centers on Edward (James McArdle), a novelist on the cusp of fame, who’s struggling to care for his aging mother, Alma (Fionnula Flanagan), as she recovers from a stroke. When the pressures of an upcoming American book tour begin to bear down, Edward’s friends decide to leave their own mothers in his care so they can dash off on an impromptu Pride getaway. What follows is a frantic weekend in which Edward, completely out of his depth, tries to manage the needs of four elderly women, each with her own personality and demands.
Darren Thornton’s heart is clearly in the right place with Four Mothers, as it digs into the physical and psychological toll of being a caretaker for an aging parent. Our protagonist, Edward, is put through the wringer as he tries to juggle his own needs with those of his mother. He’s constantly teetering on the edge of an emotional collapse, stretched thin and slipping into full-blown people-pleaser mode. James McArdle carries the film with weight and sincerity, really grounding its heavier dramatic beats. But the film’s decision to lean into comedy rather than commit to being a straight drama is ultimately its undoing.
Four Mothers revels in Edward’s misery, as Alma relentlessly pushes her son to his physical and psychological limits with her constant emotional abuse. Every sharp insult, unreasonable demand, and passive-aggressive jab is played for laughs, framed as “cute”. When in reality, it’s exhausting to watch a mother abuse her son. And it’s not just Alma who is emotionally abusive. The other mothers also demand Edward’s undivided attention. Expecting him to cater to their every need without question. These women are framed like lovable eccentrics and more like entitled boomers, but the film never really holds them accountable. Instead, it brushes off their cruelty as harmless generational quirks, just another “old person joke” we’re supposed to find endearing. The result is a tone that feels wildly out of sync with the emotional reality it’s trying to depict.
And when the film finally tries to acknowledge the mothers’ abusive behavior, it immediately walks it back as none of them face any real consequences for how they’ve treated Edward or the others. Instead, the story gets wrapped up in a neat little bow of feel-good sentiment, with the mothers suddenly deciding, out of nowhere, to “let their sons live their lives.” There’s no real reckoning, no accountability. The mothers never actually apologize or reflect on their actions, they just decided to let them go out of the blue, and we’re meant to believe that’s enough. Their sons, meanwhile, don’t seem liberated at all; they still look exhausted, still feel bound to their mothers’ endless demands. It’s a rushed, unearned ending that feels more interested in sending the audience home with warm fuzzies than delivering a resolution that’s emotionally honest. If anything, a more grounded conclusion would’ve had the sons dropping their mothers off at a retirement home and never looking back, and honestly, it would’ve felt more impactful.
Overall, Four Mothers clearly has its heart in the right place, aiming to shed light on the emotional and physical toll of caring for an aging parent. And to its credit, it doesn’t shy away from showing how time consuming that responsibility can be. How your life is no longer about you anymore, similar to taking care of a newborn. But when Edward’s mother, along with the others, are framed as “adorable” old women when they are in reality emotionally manipulative and borderline abusive, it undercuts the film’s entire message. The heart is there, yes, but it’s buried under a tone that refuses to confront the very toxicity it wants us to empathize with.
My Rating: C
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