“The more craic people are having on the shoot, the less funny it’s going to be”: Darren Thornton on his tragicomedy Four Mothers

Winner of the BFI London Film Festival’s Audience Award, Four Mothers is Irish director Darren Thornton’s long-awaited follow-up to the acclaimed ex-con drama A Date for Mad Mary (2016). Co-written with brother Colin Thornton, it’s a loose adaptation of Mid-August Lunch (2008), Gianni Di Gregorio’s comedy about a man living with his mother in a small apartment, only to get saddled with three additional old women – all of them strangers – during an Italian holiday.

The Thorntons’ reworking finds anxious Irish novelist Edward (James McArdle) unexpectedly having to supervise the eccentric elderly mothers of three pals who’ve impulsively headed to an overseas Pride event, in addition to caring for his own impish mum (Fionnula Flanagan). And all while trying to juggle promotional commitments for a potentially career-making US book tour.

I spoke to Darren Thornton about the personal circumstances that informed his charming movie, plus his slightly David Fincher-esque approach to shooting comedy.

Four Mothers is more of a riff on Mid-August Lunch than a direct remake, but it struck me as an ideal version of what a remake of a film from another country should be: you expand the potential of the premise without overcomplicating things and you meaningfully root the story in the cultural milieu of the new setting. Were these ideas about upbringing and caring in Ireland on your mind before finding the template of the earlier Italian film?

Probably from before. And it’s interesting you say that because Colin and I are big fans of The Beat That My Heart Skipped [2005] and Fingers [1978], the James Toback film [it was a remake of]. In talking with the producers, we would say Four Mothers is to Mid-August Lunch what The Beat That My Heart Skipped was to Fingers. Mid-August Lunch is a fantastic film that I don’t want to try to recreate. I want to use it as a way into things that are interesting for us right now.

We’d been going through a very painful period with our mum where she was unwell and needed care. By the time we got an email from producer Jack Sidey, with a DVD for Mid-August Lunch in the post, we were sort of living a version of what Gianni Di Gregorio had done with his film. It was a conversation that we really wanted to get into and share our point of view on what was funny, absurd and heartbreaking to us about the situation.

When our mum passed away, the feeling around it was so raw that we just needed to explore all of that. We needed to write about that period we had shared with her before we lost her, as some kind of healing or to find some kind of catharsis. We had to follow that impulse.

Why did you make the lead character a novelist?

Part of what we went through in the period that we were at home with Mam was that [A Date for Mad Mary] had come out and we were supposed to be promoting that film. We were trying to have these [interview] conversations while at the same time, like in Four Mothers, dealing with someone whose capacity is diminishing and trying to help them – literally that scenario at the start of the movie where he needs to do a radio interview while bringing Mam to the toilet. 

So many different, crazy things are happening while you’re trying to speak in an articulate way about this thing that you made. Having to be a salesman for your own work, that’s the most difficult part of the job for us. We’re always filled with self-doubt around those things. And just like in the film, our mum lost her voice and was reliant on a voice app. The loss of a voice and what that means to both of them in different ways was a compelling starting point for us with the film.

Were there any major lessons learned on A Date for Mad Mary that you brought to this production?

Particularly with the broader aspects of the comedy and the sometimes darker aspects of the drama, you’re trying to find that perfect flow where you can move in and out of comedy and tragedy in a fluid way. In the edit, it’s finding that point at which the rhythm of the story is right and all of those elements work harmoniously. That can take quite a while, and on A Date for Mad Mary I think we really went, “Fuck, did we completely mess this up?” 

And then we realised that, at a certain point, it does kick in. With Four Mothers, we felt a little more confident when we hit that same tricky period. It feels like shit right now, but it’s going to get to the point it did with the last one where it starts to flow in just the right way.

We have a pretty specific approach to comedy where we want the actors to just play the truth. Usually with comedy, even the greatest, most subtle actor will want to lean into the comedy. We’re always trying to get them to not lean into the comedy, to just trust it, because there’s nothing worse than when you’re on set and the actors are having a good lark and the crew are chuckling and you kind of know you’re going to get into the edit room and it’s not going to be funny at all. 

The more craic that people are having on the shoot, the less funny and interesting it’s going to be when you get there. So, I usually want to shoot it in such a way that they’re just fucking bored with it. And then when it gets to the cutting, it comes to life.

Does making the cast and crew bored of it involve a David Fincher level of takes?

It does to the extent where enough of the crew and cast will get frustrated that you’re shooting more takes than you would expect to be on an indie film. I try to shoot to the point where the text will feel spontaneous. People ask us if a lot of it is improvised. And that’s great because it means that it’s working properly. The answer is no, it’s not improvised, it’s very heavily scripted, but we shoot it to the degree that it really feels lived in.

We always talk about the loaded gun aspect with actors where they’ll come to set primed and sharp, and they’re attacking the scene just a little bit too much and it feels a little performed. For us anyway, if it’s too sharp, it’s not quite as funny. They’re all great actors, and it’s never a case of specific adjustments to make. It’s just waiting for a little air to come out of the tires and then it’ll start to hum.

For some in the film industry, there’s a belief that comedies are secretly the most difficult movies to make.

I do agree with that to a certain extent. With comedy, I have to shoot a lot more takes to get it to the place that I want, whereas if it’s a straight, dramatic scene, they tend to be much easier to achieve photographically. And then with the actors, to bring them to boiling point in the way that you want tends to be much simpler. 

With comedy, in getting the particular rhythm, cadence and nuance from the actors, there’s a measure of trust that you have to get from them when you’re asking them not to be broadly comedic – there’s more negotiation. Whereas with drama, it’s easier for everyone to see the colour that you’re going for.

Four Mothers is in cinemas in the UK and Ireland from 4 April 2025.