Mothering Sunday Is a Surprisingly Erotic Tale of Forbidden Love

Something that more recent films have failed to recapture in their latent (frequently chaste) depictions of love and lust is that wanting, and not receiving, is often far more erotic than the act of sex itself. Take, for example, the characters of Gerri Kellman (J. Cameron-Smith) and Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) on the HBO series Succession. Fans were positively titillated by the odd couple’s will-they-won’t-they dynamic, where their flirtatious and perverse, semi-Oedipal rapport literally comes to a head. This happens in an episode where Gerri is able to bring Roman—who has struggles with sex and intimacy—to self-stimulated climax by calling him derogatory names while he is on the other side of a closed door. Once season 3 began, fans were frantic to see Gerri and Roman finally consummate (even though it has been argued that Roman’s masturbation with Gerri’s assistance is Roman’s true means of intercourse; but that’s a whole other discussion).

But what those desperate to see the flippant, billionaire heir to an entertainment conglomerate ravish his father’s longtime business associate nearly twice his age failed to grasp at the time is what makes the Roman/Gerri dynamic so titillating in the first place: Longing. It’s what makes having a new crush feel so overwhelming; what makes people chase after someone who doesn’t want them. Being denied love and affection, or not having it quite yet, can be thrilling, and can be more thrilling than when it is requited. We can’t help but be enthralled and intrigued by what we can’t have. Thus, a large part of what makes Eva Husson’s interpretation of Mothering Sunday (adapted by playwright Alice Birch from Graham Swift’s novel) so engrossing is this depiction of an aching, desperate love—even if the fraught pair at the center of the narrative are, in fact, able to touch one another with ease. But the adulterous couple in question, young housekeeper Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) and wealthy bachelor/law student Paul Sheringham (Josh O’Connor), are nonetheless kept apart in all ways except physically. Their carnal intimacy is shrouded by the lingering reminder of both their economic and class distinctions, and Paul’s impending marriage to another woman (Emma D’Arcy).

In the present day, Jane tends to the home of older married couple Clarrie (Olivia Colman) and Godfrey Niven (Colin Firth, whose obsession with the nice weather is very funny). She has had a sexual relationship with Paul, the couple’s neighbor, since her arrival at their home many years ago. On the eponymous Mothering Sunday (the English response to Mother’s Day), Godfrey gives Jane the rest of her day off. She’s then invited by Paul to spend the afternoon at his impressive estate, while his parents, the Nivens and his fiancée and her parents all have lunch together prior to Paul’s own arrival to the occasion. Paul puts off his summoned presence until the last possible moment, in order to enjoy the pleasures of his debauchery with Jane. The pair’s sex scenes are erotic and decadent, and O’Connor and Young have riveting chemistry. Meanwhile, the camera finds equal eroticism in non-sexual acts, like a sequence in which Paul undresses Jane that’s framed largely in hovering, patient close-ups. During intercourse, the camera cradles their bodies similarly, dawdling on awkward yet seductive movements and positions; Paul’s face hanging just over Jane’s nipple, or their chins resting on top of one another as Jane’s body lays on Paul’s.