I'm not sure it's essential, but a love of all things English is surely an asset when approaching this movie. Peopled by a menagerie of eccentric, frustrating, and ultimately endearing characters, the movie's appeal lies in the brilliance of its script and the interest it ultimately engenders in its many protagonists.Set in a stately country home in perhaps the 1930s, the movie covers the events of one morning and afternoon. Dolly is about to wed Owen, yet Joseph turns up the morning of the wedding. We find that there had been a whirlwind romance between Joseph and Dolly the previous summer, that Dolly's mother was against the match, and now Joseph returns at the 11th hour to perhaps intervene? There are far too many supporting characters to mention, and they are essential to the movie's success, but the emotional focus is entirely on Dolly and Joseph. The story of their past romance is artfully narrated in a series of flashbacks (the colour palette changes each time we flash back) which interweave nicely with the events of the wedding day. The emotion between them is portrayed with sensitivity and realism; their interactions with those around them (who are mostly oblivious to what is going on) are often funny but also laced with pathos. The various zany antics that set the backdrop for this drama are hilarious in themselves, and there is a nice blend of humour and gravity to keep one attentive. The house, the gardens, the fashions are all splendid.What the movie lacks is some greater theme or message; it's about a particular love story between a particular man and woman, but beyond that, one doesn't leave with anything more substantial. Nonetheless, it's a pleasure to watch. If you like English culture, if you enjoy scintillating, witty repartee, then "Cheerful Weather" is sure to please. If you find the English upper crust snobby and boring, well, you might be better off staying away.

A British period piece with romance, family relationships, a wedding, Elizabeth McGovern. What could possibly go wrong? Just about everything. Perhaps there was a Part 1 out there somewhere that I missed. It certainly would have established who these characters were, exactly who was related to whom, and why they specifically were at the middling country estate on the wedding day of a miserable bride to be. That the bride had a mother (McGovern) and a sister of younger but indecipherable age was clear. That a miserable mope named Joseph was not totally welcome, yet given the run of the house was established. That Joseph and Dolly, the bride to be of some other fellow, had a passionate,fun-filled past was established. Beyond that was a cast of characters -relatives? friends? neighbors? servants - of no purpose other than some feeble comic relief involving confetti explosions and pratfalls; or wiser-than-the-main-characters insights into what was up between Dolly and Joseph. Flashbacks showed how right-for-each-other were Dolly and Joseph. Now she was marrying another, had invited Joseph to the wedding, wouldn't see him, pined for him in the flashbacks, married the other guy anyway, and left with him for South America without the tortoise given to her by Joseph, which the cad of a husband wouldn't let her take along. Meanwhile Joseph wanders around the house, doesn't attend the wedding ceremony, pines for Dolly in flashbacks, can't get up the gumption to stop the wedding, and finally becomes upset enough, when it's too late, to spill the dramatic revelation that Dolly is pregnant. The weeping by the onlookers to this revelation was so stagy as to be more comic than the confetti bombs. All in all truly a badly conceived and directed effort.

Because of the presence of Elizabeth McGovern and other similar traits of an early 20th century English estate family, this movie felt like a failed script for the TV program Downton Abbey. There was no particular compelling reason for this story to be greenlit in the manner it was produced except to take advantage of this similarity.It's nice to see the subtle anti-romance character traits of the two leads play out over the narrative, but it's more curiously interesting than it is intensely interesting. The sophomoric foreshadowing and symbolism feel extremely contrived and almost insulting. The scenes that should be amusing are not amusing. The cleverish storytelling isn't clever enough to make you want to care about anyone or what happens to them. And the big reveal isn't at all revelatory, but serves more as a device to unlock the grand mystery of why these people behave the way they do. Sad to say, the mystery isn't all that grand and the viewer is left with the bad taste of being inexpertly manipulated.

I found this one on Netflix streaming movies. I was curious about it because one of the stars is Elizabeth McGovern who also stars in the very popular "Downton Abbey" series. While I enjoyed it mildly overall, it is an easily forgettable movie.Set in 1932 England, the opening sequence, of an old-fashioned press being set up to print invitations in gold lettering, is very interesting. Felicity Jones is Dolly Thatcham, and it is her wedding day. She is marrying a very nice man. But Luke Treadaway as Joseph Patten shows up as a guest, and this has an upsetting effect on Dolly. It seems she doesn't want to come out of her room, and she "relaxes" by drinking rum from the bottle. Seemingly too much rum.All of this is mysterious to us, the audience, but reasons are slowly revealed. They use the technique of parallel flashbacks, we see one or the other in a present (1932) scene, then in a somewhat older scene. They keep them obvious by using a slight blue cast for the present scenes and a slight yellow cast for the flashback scenes.We slowly find that the issue is the love affair Dolly and Joseph had, when he decided he needed to travel abroad for an extended period. A young British woman in the 1930s could not wait too long, and she found a new man, and now she was marrying him.So it is basically a story of love lost and moving on with one's life.Elizabeth McGovern is Mrs. Thatcham , Dolly's mother, with her best fake British accent. I've always liked McGovern, but it seems a curious choice, given that it is not a major role and there are so many fine British actresses.