Set to have its World Premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival, And Mrs is a hilarious and heartfelt comedy-drama about Gemma (Aisling Bea), a woman living in London whose American fiancé, Nathan (Colin Hanks), dies shortly before their wedding day.
Never a true believer in modern marriage, Nathan’s death makes Gemma reevaluate the promise of a life spent together. When, with some encouragement from Nathan’s chaotic and unconventional sister, Audrey, she decides to go ahead with the wedding anyway, she has to overcome public opinion, the law of the land and even her own family’s objections for the right to finally say “I do”. And Mrs features an all-star cast led by BAFTA winner Aisling Bea (Svalta, Greatest Days, This Way Up) as Gemma, breakout star Billie Lourd (Booksmart and Ticket To Paradise) as Audrey, and Emmy nominee Colin Hanks (Nuremburg, Fargo, King Kong) as Nathan.
Discussing the movie, director Daniel Reisinger shares, ‘For me, this film will always be more personal than most because (and I still can’t believe I’m saying this) I lost my mother to COVID shortly before pre-production. It’s an unfortunate bond I ended up sharing with many of my cast and crew: Colin lost his mother in tumultuous circumstances in his early 20s; Aisling’s father took his own life when she was only three and Billie famously lost her mother, Carrie Fisher, and grandmother, Debbie Reynolds, within 48 hours of each other.
I feel that post-pandemic, now more than ever, we need stories like And Mrs that let us laugh through the grief. At the heart of this film is a nuanced relationship between two unforgettable female protagonists, Gemma and Audrey. They’re forced to travel back to the US to find the mother who abandoned Nathan and Audrey as children, and in doing so they shed a unique light on what constitutes familial love. The film’s examination of universal themes like this and its international backdrop give it the capacity to travel beyond the usual cultural boundaries of most comedies and reach a global audience.
At the same time, the film is wonderfully specific to England. Gemma’s crusade becomes a device to explore her relationship with her late husband and thus London – the city where they lived and loved. Beyond that, thematically, the story is a rebellion against the famous British ‘stiff upper lip’. Its rallying cry is that there is no ‘proper ‘way to grieve, and that love can conquer all – even death.
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