It’s so barmy that you want it to be true. The plot of this gimmicky British romcom hinges on a 200-year-old law that – supposedly – permits marriage to a dead person. (It was introduced, so it is said in the movie, during the Napoleonic wars to allow women to marry sweethearts who died on the battlefield.) There’s even a word for it: necrogamy. And Mrs stars glorious Aisling Bea as Gemma, who launches a legal bid to get hitched to her American fiance Nathan after he drops dead at home in east London. Tom Hank’s son Colin plays the corpse – or ghost, since Nathan pops back for the odd chat with Gemma (he also appears in flashbacks).
The upside to casting Bea in a comedy is that she’s an absolute hoot. When Hollywood stars play ordinary civilians, there’s often a slumming-it quality to their performances, but Bea is funny and real, sarky and very likable as Gemma, who’s feeling guilty after Nathan dies. He was a big daffy romantic while she never really believed in marriage – and used to joke their wedding was a visa scam. So, in the depths of grief, to prove she really meant it, Gemma decides to go through with the wedding. First, she must ask permission from the lord chief justice (played to frosty posh perfection by Harriet Walter).
