Four Mothers: comic spark shines through the farce in this pertly scripted crowd-pleaser

Edward (James McArdle), a gay Irish novelist, has a hit on his hands – or he might, if he can f ind snappier words to sell it. His YA debut sounds like a winning romance between two boys, but in Zoom promos and radio spots he keeps emphasising “social structures” and post-colonial malaise. Agents and interviewers cringe, as does Edward, aware of jeopardising success just before it blooms.

If Edward had been better trained at PR and was pitching this very movie, he might call Four Mothers a “sweetly poignant comedy about the humour and sorrow of elder care”. Book promotion is further strained by Edward’s feeding, dressing, and constant oversight of his mother Alma (Fionnula Flanagan) in the small house they share. Speech-impacted by a recent stroke, Alma gets her peppery points across with or without the iPad that gives them sternly robotic expression.

The pressures compound when Billy (Gordon Hickey) and Colm (Gearoid Farrelly), Edward’s fellow travellers in gay singledom, filial duty and early middle age, heed the call of a days-long Pride party in the Canaries. Without notice, they drop their own mums in Edward and Alma’s living room. Dermot (Rory O’Neill), Edward’s newly uncloseted therapist, takes perverse inspiration from it, and soon his mother is also at Edward’s doorstep.

Director Darren Thornton, who co-wrote Four Mothers with his brother Colin, handles these farcical elements beautifully. Early scenes tilt broad, but comic spark abounds. That’s even truer once the mothers of the title converge, in a crisply edited ballet of domestic chaos. So many versions of Four Mothers would treat these women as laughing stocks or obstacles. Thornton’s aims could not be further away, and his actresses – the resourceful and hypnotic Flanagan, sharp-edged Dearbhla Molloy, doe-like Stella McCusker and freewheeling Paddy Glynn – are in on the hearty, observant jokes without being the jokes. McArdle, tasked to make a loose, vivid lead from an anxious, indecisive introvert, is every bit the gorgeously shaded, quietly wounded centre this script needs.

Edward might protest that Four Mothers isn’t ‘just’ a humane comedy or warm ensemble portrait. Thornton is wise about cross-generational varieties of emotional self-sabotage – and about stalemated blame games between parents and adult children, even those who love each other. Edward’s agent insists that pop audiences balk at subtext, but this pertly scripted, well-styled crowd-pleaser is rich with it.

► Four Mothers is in UK cinemas from 4 April.