Summary

• Mother of the Bride falls short of capturing a sincere, romantic connection, leaving viewers disinterested in the characters' plight.
• Failing to engage audiences, the movie's weak script and uninspired characters have led to widespread criticism and mockery online.
• While some praise Chad Michael Murray's performance, Mother of the Bride is ultimately deemed by most as unremarkable and lacking in redeeming qualities.

As much as we want to see all productions succeed and capture an audience, there is also some joy to be found when something is met with a mix of confusion and disdain that instantly outs it as a universally 'bad movie.' This is where Netflix's new original movie Mother of the Bride comes in, being panned by critics and poked fun at on social media and movie review sites. Still, critics don't always get it right, and viewers' tendency to dog pile on negativity is sometimes malicious for the sake of being malicious.

We will look at the response to the Netflix original and see if any smoke from the online firestorm around the movie is irredeemably bad. We will also let you know what the film does well so you can decide if it is worth checking out or if Mother of the Bride is as awful as people say.

Spoiler: to get into the details of why people have been saying Mother of the Bride is awful, we have to touch on some key plot points

Plot and Cast of Mother of the Bride

Lana is shocked to find that her daughter Emma is getting married, and even more so when she learns that she is planning a destination wedding and that her husband is the son of Will, a man who broke her heart years ago. Heading to Phuket, Lana must deal with the pressures of a social media influencer as her famous daughter's wedding becomes controlled by optics. In addition, as she constantly runs into Will, all of her past feelings are brought up.

Mother of the Bride stars Brooke Shields as Lana and Mirada Cosgrove as Emma. Brooke Shields became a household name at a young age for her role in the scandalous romance movie Blue Lagoon and her long-spanning career, which has seen the actor in over 100 movie and TV roles. Miranda Cosgrove is best known for her role as Carly Shay in the hit TV show iCarly. The supporting cast includes Benjamin Bratt as Will, Rachel Harris as Janice, Sean Teal as RJ, and Chad Micheal Murray as Lewis. The movie was directed by Mark Waters, best known for the early 2000s classics Mean Girls and Freaky Friday.

What Audiences Have Been Saying About Netflix's Mother of the Bride

Adding to the list of movies being lambasted for their poor quality, laughable dialogue, and general ineptitude at capturing the most basic human emotions, Mother of the Bride has been dragged online. This ranges from the general "What did I just watch?" to longer, scathing comments about the movie's many faults. X, formerly Twitter, has seen many people coming out to make fun of the movie's many inadequacies.

Many recurring comments have come up, and ignoring the less savory ones that attack the cast, some common themes include touching on the overuse of clichés to the point of feeling AI-generated, one long advertisement for vacationing in Phuket (granted, it does look pristine), and the film even falling short of being allowed the honors to be considered 'so-bad-its-good.' However, the most fun that users have been having online is poking fun at the 'step siblings' getting married, as (spoiler) there is a proposal at the end that implicates that Emma and RJ are now step-siblings.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Mother of the Bride did not fare much better than the fan reaction, with the film currently sitting at 14% rotten with 35 critic reviews. This includes some wicked words towards the film from Robert Kojder at Flickering Myth, who said," Anything grounded or human that real people could relate to regarding relationships or marriage is thrown out the window for cringe slapstick gags and shallow, filthy rich characters." Natalia Winkelman of the New York Times takes a particular potshot at the movie's flat comedy, saying, "The best screwball gag this movie can muster is a pickleball shot to the groin."

Is Mother of the Bride as Bad as People Say?

Playing the equivalent of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" to determine if the movie touches on themes of incest is not a good start. Even if this is not the case, questions like this brought up by viewers point to a generally weak script and poor line of logic. The plot, while in many ways typical, is also utterly unremarkable and fails at making the viewer interested in the characters' plight.

This is largely due to the script, which is lifeless enough to draw a comparison to AI from many, and a general disdain towards opulent, obnoxious characters. Miranda Cosgrove's entire role can be summed up as a 'vapid social media influencer,' her husband-to-be, RJ, could have been played by a balloon with a face drawn on it. Building the rest of the cast around the event of this marriage is dull and feels vastly out of touch with modern sentiments when considering the wealth on display and empty buzzwords constantly thrown around.

Of course, we still love the lives of the rich and famous, but that is mostly through reality TV or masterfully crafted movies or TV series with an engaging dramatic flair. Mother of the Bride is devoid of meaningful drama or romance, giving viewers the time to nitpick every bit of dialogue and awkward humor attempt that often falls flat. For most audiences, the movie is as bad as they say; they are not far from an objective analysis of the multitude of ways Mother of the Bride fails. Is Mother of the Bride a complete waste? Not necessarily, but what it does do well is few and far between.

Is There Anything Redeemable About Mother of the Bride?

If you are going to look at the audience's reaction to the movie, the positive remarks tend to center heavily around one character, Chad Michael Murray, acting as a thirst trap. This has made the most positive social discourse on the movie amount to sharing images or clips of Murray as Lucas.

Beyond this, it is slightly cruel to put too much negative emphasis on the performances here, as little could be managed with such an inane script. There are charming moments for almost every character, from the main to the supporting (including the previously mentioned human balloon), that lean on their natural charisma. Brooke Shields, in particular, has her moments as a dotting mother looking for romance while dealing with her daughter's demands under the social perceptions of being 'midlife.'

Suppose we are overly generous with the movie and look at it compared to a Hallmark special. In that case, the quality is passable, and the comedy and romantic elements have that light, inoffensive commercial flair that may appeal to that audience. The audience may not be you, but it could be your mother, especially with the emphasis on romance in the 50s, Brooke Shields standing up for herself as the family matriarch, and the inclusion of handsome men by that generation's standards.

Still, Mother of the Bride falls short of capturing what feels like a sincere, romantic connection many Hallmark productions have nailed for a similar demographic. At best, one could say that Mother of the Bride is "okay" or "middling," but most won't be as kind. The movie has still managed to dethrone Unfrosted on Netflix, for what it's worth, and if you want to find out just how bad it is, you can stream Mother of the Bride on Netflix.