Cheerful Weather for the Wedding ** (out of five)
England, a country manor, the 1930s: Downstairs, the guests gather for a wedding; upstairs, Dolly (the astonishingly beautiful Felicity Jones) frets and drinks, remembering the summer she fell in love with Joseph (Luke Treadaway), who is not the boy she’s about to marry.
It’s hard to understand why this movie exists, except to cash in on the astounding popularity of Downton Abbey; it’s not funny (and I’m not sure it’s meant to be a comedy), barely dramatic, and its ponderous basic story has been told more richly many times before. At a scant 93 minutes, it feels long; it could easily have been told as a short film (it’s adapted from a 1932 novel, which probably should have been a short story).
The estate and surrounds, and most of the people, are very beautiful to look at, the costumes are fine, and there’s so nice old motors; it’s all very English and proper and tasteful, but it doesn’t tug at your heartstrings, just at your patience. If you’re seriously white-knuckling for a dose of English Period Countryside Romanticism while you wait for Downton’s next season to roll, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding will be like methadone: it’s not going to satisfy you, but it may relieve your itch.