Director Garry Marshall has made a third or fourth career out of making movies based on sentimental holidays.  He’s made Valentine’s Day (2010), New Year’s Eve (2011) and now Mother’s Day.  Can’t wait for Flag Day or Arbor Day.  Marshall’s films are multi-character pastiches in which varied all-star casts discover the real meaning of love and friendship and family values before the end credits begin.  They’re like TV-movies with big budgets and lots of familiar faces, and occasionally some genuinely affecting moments.

I thought one scene was really effective in this one, a comedy club scene in which the comic hopeful (Jack Whitehall) cannot help but bring his young daughter onstage with him, and the comedy flows from that.  It was an obvious thing to do, but it is carried off really well, and is, for me, the highlight of this mushy movie.  Apart from the really attractive cast (Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts, Sarah Chalke, Britt Robertson and especially Shay Mitchell) there really isn’t much here for me to appreciate.

Several stories intertwine, and by the end each little group of characters experiences a Life Lesson.  The most painful was the Inclusion storyline, in which Kate Hudson and Aasif Mandvi are finally forced to tell their prejudiced parents that they’ve married and had children.  This episode ends in a ridiculous chase with an RV and a parade float of a pink womb, and racial profiling by the police.  Other stories are more innocuous and less ill-conceived, but none are exemplary.

Actually, now that he’s done Mother’s Day, I would expect Marshall to tackle the other side and prepare Father’s Day for next year. It’s only fair. And as uninspired as this movie is, it’s still better than his worst film, Exit to Eden (1994). But not by that much. ☆ ☆. 11 May 2016.