And Mrs is led by Irish actress/comedian, Aisling Bea (who toured Australia some months ago). She’s very strong here, mostly keeping proceedings from getting too sentimental or despairing, and there’s some cool odd-couple chemistry between her and co-star Billie Lourd (Carrie Fisher’s daughter).
Gemma (Aisling) is an east London-based artist who awakens one morning for exercise in the park, and she bids a funny, foul-mouthed farewell to her half-asleep fiancé Nathan (Colin Hanks). And then she returns to find that he’s unexpectedly died of an embolism while putting his socks on, although he regularly appears thereafter in flashbacks and fantasies that occasionally blur into each other.
After a period of stunned silence where her Mum (Sinéad Cusack), Dad (Peter Egan) and BFF Ruth (Susan Wokoma) try to help her, Gemma must break the news to Nathan’s pregnant, somewhat hippy-dippy sister Audrey (Billie), who was uncontactable at exactly the wrong time. These two women then clash and, later, naturally bond, as Gemma decides that what she really wants to honour Nathan is to engage in ‘necrogamy’: a posthumous marriage.
Necrogamy is essentially legal, but hasn’t been practised in 200 years, so Gemma and Audrey must convince the lord chief justice (Harriet Walter) why it should be allowed. Even as the rest of the many characters look on in disbelief.
There are so many familiar faces here: former Doctor Who companion Arthur Darvill is charming as Nathan’s goofy friend Rory; Paul Kaye’s Ian delivers a ghastly eulogy at Nathan’s funeral; and there’s a small yet crucial role by a star of Downton Abbey, no less. But really this is all about Aisling and Billie, who demonstrate how we can find connection even in the hardest and saddest of times.
Plus, there’s just about the most sweetly touching end credits sequence in the whole history of cinema.
And Mrs is screening as part of The Russell Hobbs British Film Festival 2024.
Pictured at top are And Mrs actors, Colin Hanks and Aisling Bea.
