In Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday, Jane (Odessa Young), a young housemaid in 1924 England, uses her day off for a secret assignation with Paul (Josh O’Connor), a toff from a neighboring estate who’s engaged to be married to a class-appropriate beauty. Paul’s house is empty: the servants are off visiting their mothers for the holiday; his parents are at a luncheon; and his brothers are dead, killed in the war. His heart is still heavy, and in bed with Jane, he finds respite from his melancholy.
Though Jane loves him, their class differences don’t make her needy or vulnerable. In one of the film’s most remarkable scenes, she pads alone, naked and self-assured, through Paul’s large, drafty house, examining paintings, furniture, the books in the library, before heading to the…