Mother’s Pride review – Flat populism and weak beer in Martin Clunes’s post-Brexit pub comedy | film

TFriends of the Hunters has found a modestly lucrative niche in the post-Brexit era: tales of culturally endangered Anglo-Saxon endeavours, nudged towards gentle uplift by a few songs and laughs, a bit of sentiment and some rabble-rousing populism. At first they were half-forgotten sea shanties; Now it is the dwindling pub trade, here represented by rival establishments in the West Country. Down one street lies the spit-and-sawdust enclave of the Drovers Arms, overseen by salt-of-the-earth (read: emotionally repressed) widower Martin Clunes, who is slowly being strangled by the brewery’s supply chain. On the other hand, the brewery’s own La-di-da Gastropub, is somewhat implausibly owned and operated by posho Pritchard (Luke Treadaway).

The scene may have shifted inward — sadly, the promenade scene in Fisherman’s Friends is gone — but the formula remains more or less the same: corny exposition, capitalized “ISSUES,” and variously disturbing paternal gags. Tension arises between Clunes and prodigal son Juno Davies, until the latter proposes a radical idea to save the business: homebrewing. Davies has a strange encounter with his old lover Gabriella Wilde, who is now living with Treadway and no doubt eating swans for breakfast. But the decisions are truly arbitrary: it only takes about 10 minutes for a villager who vandalizes a microbrewery to crowdfund its replacement. Co-writer and director Nick Moorcroft must pray that audience sympathy for rickety, no-frills structures like the Drovers extends to the film itself.

The cast plays an important role alongside the real ale awards, which becomes the setting for the least surprising surprise result in current cinema. Clunes at least bothers to piece together a character from everything that’s been put in front of him, and Mark Addy – while the townspeople are drunk – gamely commits to an asthmatic gag involving disco-infused Morris dancing. Josie Lawrence and Miles Jupp could have, briefly, improvised a funnier film between them. The rude nods to TikTok and harassment are delivered in the manner of an MP, and surely there must be a stronger case for keeping our pubs than a “last refuge for middle-aged depressed patients”. Ken Loach and Paul Lafferty almost did just that with 2023’s The Old Oak, but Moorcroft’s mild alternative is a weak beer, to say the least.

● Mother’s Pride is in cinemas in the UK and Ireland from 6 March.