Cheerful Weather for the Wedding

Overview

Taking its cue from period dramas Downton Abbey and Gosford Park, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding plunges us into the eccentricities and delusions of upper-class Britain between the wars. Adapted from a 1932 novella by Julia Strachey, the film is director Donald Rice's debut feature.

On her wedding day, Dolly Thatcham (Felicity Jones) is preparing to walk down the aisle with the bland but reliable Owen Bigham (James Norton) when the sudden appearance of her former lover, Joseph Patten (Luke Treadaway), throws her into a fit of confusion. Holing herself up in her room, Dolly gets stuck into a bottle of rum, trying to mitigate the now torturous process of final preparation.

Meanwhile, her matriarchal, widowed mother (Elizabeth McGovern) strides about the manor, patronising any relative within arm's length and sending particularly scathing barbs in the direction of the troubled and seemingly regretful Joseph.

The other members of the wedding party — a parade of oddball yet likeable Brits — dart in and out of the narrative, provoking an array of subplots. Dolly's sister Kitty (Ellie Kendrick) spends her time protesting about the lack of eligible bachelors on her radar, eventually making a comical effort to pursue the chauffeur. Cynical, sharp-tongued bridesmaid, Evelyn (Zoe Tapper), becomes the inappropriate target of Uncle Bob's (Julian Wadham) affections. Mackenzie Crook and Fenella Woolgar team up as Helen and David Dakin, a distanced married couple struggling to control a naughty son with a penchant for blowing up firecrackers.

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding aims to satirise the upper class's sacrifice of emotional impulses for social control and the hypocrisy of obsession with appearances. However, while these intentions are clear, the script does not explore them with much depth, being neither gut-achingly witty nor gut-wrenchingly penetrating.

Sure, moments of situational and verbal humour inspire laughs, and the storyline rolls along at a jolly pace, but the overall impact is entertaining and amusing rather than overwhelming. Flashbacks employed to depict Dolly and Joseph's love affair tend to come across as a little contrived and predictable.

That said, the set is lush and the costumes have everyone looking their dapper-est best. McGovern and Treadaway offer particularly strong performances — McGovern for her charismatic, commanding interpretation of the ruler of the roost, and Treadaway for his vulnerable, multi-shaded take on the uncertain ex-lover.

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding might make for some gentle Sunday afternoon escapism, but the Thatcham household is a long walk from Downton Abbey.