Cinema’s focus on the youth market ignores that there are considerable older audiences who love going to the movies but are generally underserved. From this perspective, most movies are either too violent or aimed at teenagers, none of which makes them travel to the theatre and take their money out of their pockets. Well, let me introduce Mother’s Pride, a perfectly pleasant English movie about how the minor problem of some middle-aged, middle-class people can be solved by brewing their own beer. That’s right, Mother’s Pride includes exactly one four-letter word, two punches thrown and all the beer-themed puns you can think of. Its gentle heart, which does not mean TV-movie mawkishness and certainly doesn’t ignore the issues of our time, makes for an enjoyable trip to the pictures.
One-hit-wonder musician Cal Harley (Jonno Davies, best known for his mocap performance as Ape Robbie Williams in the criminally underrated Better Man) returns to his home village in Somerset with his tail between his legs. He’s been so out of contact that he missed his mother’s funeral, for which mistake he’s immediately punched in the face by his father Mick (Martin Clunes, who between this and Wuthering Heights is having a great couple months). Mick and his other son Jake (the always-amiable James Buckley) run a pub called The Drovers’ Arms, but they’re the kind of landlords who are furious to have any customers. The only regular is ‘geriatic alcoholic’ Paxman (Mark Addy visibly enjoying himself), so their financial troubles are serious and getting worse. Adding insult to injury, directly across the road is a very successful pub owned by irritating posho Pritchard (Luke Treadaway), whose schoolteacher girlfriend Abi (Gabriella Wilde) was Cal’s first love. But in the basement Cal discovers his grandfather’s old brewing still and recipe book. This means they can save the pub by brewing their own ale and winning the regional real ale contest. What could possibly happen?
Director Nick Moorcroft, who co-wrote the script with Meg Leonard, will win precisely zero prizes for originality, but who cares? Glee has been off the air for a while so it’s about time people got excited about going to regionals again. And if you are not amused by a Morris dancing troupe (the English folk dance that’s generally a source of mockery) deciding to update their style by switching to disco music, then you are not the target audience here. The emphasis on the importance of participating in your community and looking after your mental health is the kind of practical feel-good message everyone can get behind. The only politics here are constant reminders that villages losing their pubs struggle to maintain a sense of community which worsens everyone’s mental health. This is actually fairly political in a nation where small towns regularly have their third spaces destroyed by a combination of austerity and private equity. In another subplot Jake’s daughter Romy (Lana Moorcroft) gets an ADHD diagnosis, and the matter-of-fact attitude to neurodivergence which follows is still fairly unusual. It’s also pleasing to see characters of colour in a firmly rural story without comment, and the hints of rampant sexual promiscuity taking place just offscreen is a rather grown-up way of acknowledging reality (or parts of it, ahem) without overdoing it.
In other words, Mother’s Pride knows exactly what it is and does a wonderful job of delivering exactly that. No wheels are reinvented but the needle on what a feelgood movie can include has been slightly moved forward, and for a pleasant trip to the cinema that’s more than enough.
Mother’s Pride was recently in theaters.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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