Film review: Four Mothers – a heartwarming mother-son caper

03 April 2025, The Tablet

Following a stroke, Alma uses a wheelchair and can no longer speak, communicating with the imperious ringing of a bell, the acerbic use of her iPad to generate an automated voice, and an inescapably telling range of expressions.

Four Mothers, a loose adaptation of Gianni Di Gregorio’s 2008 movie Mid-August Lunch, written by Darren Thornton with his brother Colin, is a gem of a film.

Four Mothers, unsentimentally inspired by Darren and Colin Thornton’s time caring for their own mother, is all about small but important things like finding one’s voice, and about love. It is genuinely heartwarming.

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