Much to the chagrin of Dolly's mother (Elizabeth McGovern, right), Dolly's feelings imperil the plans she has for her daughter. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding book. On the day of Dolly's (Felicity Jones) wedding, a former flame returns to stir up doubts about her decision. And the weather of course. I loved being that uninvited guest listening in on conversations and watching the preparations. I read it decades ago and had happy memories of it. Parents need to know that Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is anything but cheerful. 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Trailer 4 Gallery 5 Related Links England, 1932. (To say nothing of each other.) Under the Reader’s Radar – celebrating the quiet novel, Follow From First Page to Last on WordPress.com. 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. Recommended. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. Unfortunately, for the rest of the film, those forces refuse to mesh. Romantic and spirited Dolly Thatcham (Felicity Jones) is preparing to marry kind but dull Owen Bigham (James Norton). 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. I found Cheerful Weather for the Wedding to be both thought provoking and fun to read. It is about the disparate group of characters that always gather together at weddings, maiden aunts, dowager aunts, schoolboys and men of the cloth, all joining to celebrate a happy occasion. 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. The reader though is led to understand Kitty has an army of suitors and we witness her charm offensive in action when she talks to Joseph, Dolly’s friend. Set in a large country house in Devon in the 1930s, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is about the difficult decision faced by a young woman on her wedding day. Published by Persephone Books. But a re-read in 2013 underwhelmed me and I felt just irritated with most of the characters. A young woman frets upstairs in her family's country manor on her wedding day, fearful she's about to marry the wrong man. 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. Partridge kept a diary all her life and several volumes have been published by Little Brown. 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. Dolly's sister Kitty (Ellie Kendrick) is starved for attention and looking forward to trying to woo one of two handsome twins expected at the party. But with so little interaction during the bulk of the movie, Rice's story, adapted from a 1932 novella by Julia Strachey, ends up spending as much time on the kooky antics of the family before the wedding. The rest is a wistful romance, with Dolly getting quietly drunk upstairs as Joseph pines for her below. In 1939 Julia met the art critic Lawrence Gowing, who was twenty-one; the two married after fifteen years. It says more for his absence, from the thoughts of his bride and his future mother-in-law of how he is deemed. England, 1932. 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. Production began in November 2010 and the film premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. 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). There are a whole host of characters who walk in and out of the house, described briefly or in more detail. She was married to the sculptor Stephen Tomlin from 1927-34. It is also about convention, the convention of the time. He's sturdy, steadfast and, it's suggested, just a little bit dull. She is forgetful, giving conflicting instructions to the servants then exasperated when things go wrong. 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. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood at the time! That feeling of anticipation rising in many viewers' chests may be their hearts readying themselves for the tense post-Victorian drama of the popular TV series Downton Abbey, which is what that opening rather too directly recalls. Mrs Thatcham is easily conjured, flitting about, fretting and preening in equal measures. 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. ( Log Out /  Trouble soon appears in the shape of Joseph, Dolly's lover from the previous summer, who throws her feelings into turmoil. The bride, Dolly (Felicity Jones), is hiding out upstairs swigging rum, the wedding ring is missing, … In the UK production Cheerful W… 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." 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.”‘. These two novels (published in 1932 and 1951) introduced a rare and unusual talent. Appearance was everything and sacrifices had to be made between happiness and duty. I’ve often thought about buying this book without ever quite making it to the till. She is to marry Owen Bingham. 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. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding movie reviews & Metacritic score: England, 1932. Felicity Jones Luke Treadaway Elizabeth McGovern (2012) On the day of her wedding, an ambivalent bride (Felicity Jones) locks herself in her bedroom while her family -- and former lover (Luke Treadaway) ... Support for Internet Explorer 11 is Ending. 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. Something to remedy in the future, I think…. Dolly’s sister Kitty is blessed with ugly hands or so we are told. 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'. This is a short novella, though it is not short of story. Julia Strachey was one of her oldest friends and she wrote “Julia” a biography. The novella is one of misspent emotions and spilled seed. So why is the bride hiding in her room with a bottle of rum? Love was not a requirement for a relationship, just a happy bonus. The book is too brief to explain much, and I had to guess why the wedding was happening at all. I really loved this novella, even more so on my second reading. She is not suited to the bright yellow bridesmaid dress. Film, Comedy. The titular wedding is that of older daughter Dolly Thatcham (Felicity Jones), and as the extended family gathers at the house for the happy occasion, she is holed up in her room, being dressed by her ladies' maid, getting drunk on rum and reading Tolstoy's Family Happiness, a title as ironic to her own situation as it was to the author's story. Julia Strachey (1901-79) was born in India and lived with relations in England after her parents divorced. 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. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. She is anxious about the choices she has made and is trying to figure out if this is what she wants, or if she has the gall to go through with something she doesn't want. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. With Felicity Jones, Luke Treadaway, Elizabeth McGovern, James Norton. Trouble soon appears in the shape of Joseph, Dolly's lover from the previous summer, who throws her feelings into turmoil. 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… This short story takes place the day of Felicity Jones's wedding. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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. What follows seems just as aimed at a shared audience, with its lush period settings, passive-aggressive wit and even Elizabeth McGovern turning up to play, as she does on Downton, the mother of a family seemingly always poised just on the edge of social disaster. Directed by Donald Rice. However, the film, adapted from a 1932 Julia Strachey novella praised and published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, does begin with the promise of a turbulent main event. hide caption. Arriving at a time when Downton Abbey has made the love lives of proper British citizens popular once again, Donald Rice's adaptation of Julia Strachey's 1932 novel Cheerful Weather for the Wedding certainly feels like it's being released at a most advantageous moment, but in truth its tale of young love and family drama is timeless. Editorial Reviews. 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. England, 1932. 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. Change ). The primary cause for her anxiety arrives in the form of Joseph (Luke Treadaway), a handsome young professor with whom Dolly had a fling during the preceding summer. Each of the characters are easy to imagine, as are the sitting room, library and bedroom of the bride. 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. The most obvious exception is Owen, the groom. ( Log Out /  Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding ( 198 ) IMDb 5.7 1 h 32 min 2012 PG In this lighthearted and steamy romantic comedy, bride-to-be Dolly must choose between her devoted fiancee and the former lover she wants to seduce her Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Friend Evie (Zoe Tapper) has her eye on an older man, Uncle Bob (Julian Wadham), a religious man with a way with the ladies that doesn't quite match his clerical collar. Downstairs, her fiancé and her former lover grow increasingly anxious. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (1932) is a novella by Julia Strachey. These seem almost a device to compare the sisters, the beauty of the bride not to be overshadowed by her sister. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Do not be fooled by the title of the 2012 film, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding.This is NOT a fluffy historical rom-com. 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. Donald Rice's Cheerful Weather for the Wedding calls upon the style and period — and even an actress — from the popular TV drama Downton … hide caption, With: Felicity Jones, Luke Treadaway, Elizabeth McGovern, Something like deja vu takes hold during the opening shots of Donald Rice's debut feature, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. For the former he is the inevitable future, for the latter, a chance to shine in the reflected glory of the match. (Her daughters, in another Downton echo, possess a remarkable flair for the dramatic.). Joseph doesn’t think he is in love with Dolly but he’s not sure. The comic relief, an attempt to buoy the sinking feeling of Dolly and Joseph's difficulties, steals away the emotional weight of their story. 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. She worked as a model at Poiret, as a photographer, and as a publisher’s reader. Learn how your comment data is processed. Watch: Trailer For Brit Pic 'Cheerful Weather For The Wedding' Starring Felicity Jones & Luke Treadaway IFC Films There's also a deaf old man who constantly misunderstands anything shouted his way; sex-obsessed teen boys; and a stuffy matriarch, Aunt Bella (Barbara Flynn), whose primary purpose (paging Maggie Smith) is to scowl and make catty remarks. The reader is an uninvited guest, peeking in at the preparations and bustle and privy to the inner workings of the wedding party. 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. ‎Watch trailers, read customer and critic reviews, and buy Cheerful Weather for the Wedding directed by Donald Rice for $7.99. I t doesn’t spoil much to say that Cheerful Weather for a Wedding contains little good weather and no wedding ceremony. 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