Mother's Day

Late filmmaker Garry Marshall's cringe-worthy rom-com serves up a treacly ensemble tribute to motherhood in its various suburban permutations. Perennially perky Sandy (Jennifer Aniston) is a divorcee with two sons whose ex-husband (Timothy Olyphant) has just married his much-younger girlfriend (Shay Mitchell). It is a foregone conclusion that Sandy will end up with widower Bradley (Jason Sudeikis)—father of teenage daughters—iwhose military wife (Jennifer Garner) died in Afghanistan. Jesse (Kate Hudson) and her sister are estranged from their prejudiced/homophobic parents. Unbeknownst to mom and pop, Jesse is married to Russell (Aasif Mandvi), whose family came from India, while Gabi (Sarah Chalke) has a lesbian spouse (Cameron Esposito). And then there's Kristin (Britt Robertson), who discovers that her birth mother—who gave her up for adoption as a newborn—is super-successful Miranda (Julia Roberts), hawker of mood pendants on the Home Shopping Network. The sappy, sentimental, intertwining narratives are disjointed, while the various vignettes are utterly predictable. Optional, at best. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a gag reel (10 min.), deleted scenes (5 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are bonus digital and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a small extra packages for a disappointing rom-com.] (S. Granger)