Mothering Sunday

While the upper crust engages in mindless small talk, the commoners in Mothering Sunday are left to communicate through subtle glances and gestures.

This evocative and meticulously detailed British period piece — based on a Graham Swift novella — explores this dichotomy with sincerity and conviction, sidestepping stuffy trappings while balancing eroticism with empowerment.

Bittersweet and deliberately paced, this melodrama of sexual and artistic awakening benefits from bold and richly textured performances, which compensate for an excessively jumbled chronology.

“Once upon a time when the boys were killed,” mutters aspiring writer Jane (Odessa Young) as we’re introduced to the rural estate where she works as a young house maid in the years after World War I.

Her employers are Godfrey Niven (Colin Firth) and his wife, Clarrie (Olivia Colman), whose relationship is reduced to unspoken resentment. It would be a miserable existence for Jane if not for Paul (Josh O’Connor), her secret lover who agrees to visit when the Nivens are away.

Paul is engaged to another woman more befitting his social status, although the torrid affair suggests his heart clearly lies with Jane. Circumstances tear them apart, yet their connection endures as she blossoms in the years to come, both as a writer and a woman.

Immersed in this repressive environment, Jane discovers her voice. She finds liberation and creative inspiration in the grief and tragedy that has defined her life.

French director Eva Husson (Girls of the Sun) offers a stylish visual depiction of a posh aristocracy in which emotions are muted yet socioeconomic class distinctions are vivid.

That backdrop heightens the emotional stakes, of course, when Paul and Jane try to break free from rigid constraints that each finds physically and psychologically stifling, with Young (Shirley) modulating strength and vulnerability while the film adds layers of complexity to her story.

The screenplay by Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth) feels as though it’s been chopped up into snippets and reassembled, creating a frustrating sense of emotional detachment that prevents the romantic sparks from igniting as intended.

However, alongside the exquisite cinematography and costume design, Mothering Sunday generates a palpable rooting interest for Jane as she becomes comfortable in her own skin.

Rated R, 104 minutes.