Film Reviews

Mad, Sad and Bad Mad, Sad and Bad

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Meera Syal
• Details: UK / 90mins TBC

A dysfunctional comedy-drama in the vein of Wes Anderson, Mad, Sad and Bad depicts the lives of three thirty-something siblings in the weeks leading up to their mother's death.

Alcoholic Usha (Dhingra) wants her children to be happy ... but only after waiting on her hand and foot. Still living at home is Rashimi (Syal), a singleton who wants nothing to do with men but yearns for a baby. Her brothers are no help with her irritating mother: Atul (Ganatara) is a sit-com writer working on his first opera but his having problems with his live-in girlfriend Julia (Andrea Riseborough) because he fancies Roxy (Ayesha Dharker), the wife of best friend Graham (Tony Gardener); psychiatrist Hardeep (Varla) is a sex addict who has the hots for the depressed Julia and anything else in a skirt.
Comparisons with East is East is unavoidable but director Avie Luthra won't be complaining about that. Like Damien O'Donnell's film, Mad, Sad and Bad works best when the characters are going head-to-head: Usha, Rashimi, Atul and Hardeep don't get on with each other or anyone else and are liable to say anything to each other, no matter how cutting. Some zingers are really close to the bone. However, unlike East is East, where the plot was grounded in reality, Mad, Sad and Bad takes place in a more heightened reality. Characters do and say things that don't ring true: when Graham realises that his wife is cheating on him, he takes it on the chin in a Hugh Grant way.
Mad, Sad and Bad works best when it's a comedy but comes unstuck when Luthra veers into drama. The director treats his serious issues far too lightly: depression, alcoholism, sex-addiction and infidelity can't escape the quirkiness when a more grounded approach was called for. When the credits roll, it's tough to tell what the point of it all was. A few laughs is fair enough, but Luthra's dips into drama should suggest a deeper meaning. The characters, who get increasingly annoying, haven't learned anything from their experiences by the end.

Review by Gavin Burke