Trouble soon appears in the shape of Joseph, Dolly's lover from the previous summer, who throws her feelings into turmoil. On the day of Dolly's (Felicity Jones) wedding, a former flame returns to stir up doubts about her decision. Frances Partridge (1900-2004) was the oldest surviving member of the Bloomsbury Group, having been married to one of its members and counting most of them as her friends. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (1932) is a novella by Julia Strachey. It is also about convention, the convention of the time. Published by the Hogarth Press in 1932, it tells the story of a brisk March day in England, somewhere on the Dorset coast, during which Dolly is due to marry the Honourable Owen Bigham. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is in fact an anti-comedy in the deep sense: at the end, feelings and purposes are out of harmony, and there is no sense of the generation of new life (whether quite literal, in the prospect of children that rises over a happy couple as they ride off on to their honeymoon, or more figurative). Persephone, 121 pp., $18 Anyone facing a deluge of summer nuptials will find breezy relief in Julia Strachey's 1932 novella, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. But a re-read in 2013 underwhelmed me and I felt just irritated with most of the characters. Appearance was everything and sacrifices had to be made between happiness and duty. 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Trailer 4 Gallery 5 Related Links England, 1932. Each of the characters are easy to imagine, as are the sitting room, library and bedroom of the bride. It’s based on a 1930s novella and feels like it. Dolly is perhaps more sure of her feelings but her wedding day is perhaps not the day to review them. Julia Strachey was one of her oldest friends and she wrote “Julia” a biography. Today is Dolly Thatcham's wedding day, and her family is arriving at the manor house with all the cheerfulness, chaos and grievances that bubble to the surface at such gatherings. There is a mishap when she puts two guests in the same room so that the former nurse and the Canon end up in each other’s robes. The bride, Dolly (Felicity Jones), is hiding out upstairs swigging rum, the wedding ring is missing, … I loved being that uninvited guest listening in on conversations and watching the preparations. They may not speak for months or years, only occasionally write or be forgotten about until the next occasion but on a wedding day people get dressed in their Sunday best and play a part. She is not suited to the bright yellow bridesmaid dress. Source – own copy. Learn how your comment data is processed. These seem almost a device to compare the sisters, the beauty of the bride not to be overshadowed by her sister. Do not be fooled by the title of the 2012 film, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding.This is NOT a fluffy historical rom-com. With the insistent, urgent push of orchestral strings in the background, he offers up establishing shots of a bucolic English country manor, early 20th-century automobiles, and a bell ringing down in the servants' hall. The movie does have some dry wit sprinkled throughout, and it reminded me a little of Gosford Park (2001) the way the story unfolded in a slice-of-life fashion. (To say nothing of each other.) Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood at the time! Her mother is fluttering around the house, her sister is not happy with her appearance, the page boys are fighting and an old friend of the bride is trying to process just exactly what he feels about the impending nuptuals. The put-upon David Dakin (Mackenzie Crook) and his sniping wife, Nancy (Fenella Woolgar), want to be anywhere other than here, and with anyone other than their fireworks-obsessed terror of a son. Downstairs, her fiancé and her former lover grow increasingly anxious. She is, perhaps, a rather insipid woman, the majority of her speech and correspondence devoted to the vista where the house sits or the geography of the area. Find trailers, reviews, synopsis, awards and cast information for Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (2012) - Donald Rice on AllMovie - As the preparations for her lavish country… Recommended. For the former he is the inevitable future, for the latter, a chance to shine in the reflected glory of the match. She sees the wedding as a great match for Dolly, who is to be shipped off to South America soon after. So why is the bride hiding in her room with a bottle of rum? Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. I felt I only knew two characters well by the end - the mother of the bride, outrageous in her inability to empathise with anyone at all, and the 'other man'. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. The reader is an uninvited guest, peeking in at the preparations and bustle and privy to the inner workings of the wedding party. Today is Dolly Thatcham's wedding day, and her family is arriving at the manor house with all the cheerfulness, chaos and grievances that accompany such gatherings. The dominance of the madcap side of the film's split personality lays an airy veneer over Dolly and Joseph's woes, making them seem inconsequential — as unsubstantial as an observation about wedding-day weather. It presents a young woman’s struggle to decide between the man she loved and who broke her heart, and her safe and financially stable fiancé, for whom she feels very little passion. She worked as a model at Poiret, as a photographer, and as a publisher’s reader. There are two different movies going on here. But he left town at the end of the season, and Mrs. Thatcham sent Dolly off for a continental vacation, where she met — and quickly became engaged to — family friend Owen. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding describes a country wedding in Dorset -- guests eat and drink, a rejected suitor wanders around, the bride fortifies herself with rum and everybody pays tribute to the institution of marriage. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is a quintessentially British movie about love, obligation and sacrifice. Production began in November 2010 and the film premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. She is resigned to marrying Owen, she doesn’t dislike but has realised in seeing Joseph, just how different her feelings are for the two men. The few amusing scenes with the peripheral characters are not nearly enough to distract from the main characters being generally dreadful, selfish and spoiled human beings who don’t really deserve a happy ending. He's sturdy, steadfast and, it's suggested, just a little bit dull. hide caption. This is a short novella, though it is not short of story. She is determined to make the best of her future, she just needs to come to terms with it first. The novella is one of misspent emotions and spilled seed. I found Cheerful Weather for the Wedding to be both thought provoking and fun to read. The comic relief, an attempt to buoy the sinking feeling of Dolly and Joseph's difficulties, steals away the emotional weight of their story. The circus of the family gathering is an acerbic, chaotic comedy, barreling forward with sarcastic bons mot and the occasional small explosion — not emotional outbursts, mind you, but literal explosions courtesy the Dakins' mischievous spawn. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding Review ... SBS World Movies is bringing you the biggest curated films from all over the world every week through to the end of February. Romantic and spirited Dolly Thatcham (Felicity Jones) is preparing to marry kind but dull Owen Bigham (James Norton). Dolly’s sister Kitty is blessed with ugly hands or so we are told. A space to share book reviews and other book related treats, A short novel that was first published in 1932 by a niece of Lytton Strachey: in this ‘sharp, unsentimental domestic comedy, the weather is something less than cheerful the day Dolly Thatcham marries the Hon Owen Bingham: “In the furious March gale, everyone felt as though they were being beaten on the back of the head and on the nose with heavy carpets, and having cold steel knives thrust up inside their nostrils.”‘. I really loved this novella, even more so on my second reading. A large group of family members and assorted friends gathers for a young woman's marriage in post-WWI England, an event that she seems to be anticipating with dread. Editorial Reviews. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. ‎Watch trailers, read customer and critic reviews, and buy Cheerful Weather for the Wedding directed by Donald Rice for $7.99. Rice seems intent on blending the two into a bittersweet romantic comedy, and in one well-executed scene just before Dolly is to leave for the church, he beautifully combines a touch of slapstick with an emotional awkwardness that is both funny and affecting. In the UK production Cheerful W… Much to the chagrin of Dolly's mother (Elizabeth McGovern, right), Dolly's feelings imperil the plans she has for her daughter. Published by Persephone Books. England, 1932. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. It says more for his absence, from the thoughts of his bride and his future mother-in-law of how he is deemed. It is perhaps this lack of focus on him that makes Owen the character the reader feels for the most, for his emotions are almost discarded. Parents need to know that Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is anything but cheerful. As John Russell remarks, it is pure comedy, 'dealt in a particular ( Log Out /  Joseph doesn’t think he is in love with Dolly but he’s not sure. I read it decades ago and had happy memories of it. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding The wedding-day waffling of a '30s-era Brit femme yields predictable comedy and melodrama in "Cheerful Weather for the Wedding." Something to remedy in the future, I think…. This poorly timed romance is the drama that drives the film, and yet Joseph and Dolly have but two present-day scenes together. Dolly's heart is with the more romantic Joseph, but he's absent and unreliable; his feeble attempts at emotional sabotage on her wedding day are far too little and way too late. Change ). Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is a gloomy tale about a pair of crazy kids in love who just cannot get their sh*t together. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. 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