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Honeyjoon isn't a traditional mother-daughter tale that hyper-focuses on two characters' inability to communicate. It's better than that. It's about facing multiple truths simultaneously: the state of the world, your grief, your own life. It's about two completely different views of how we maneuver through life with the invisible weight carried after the gargantuan loss of a husband or father. This film touches on how to empathize with another person's reality that you surprisingly or naively believe is different from your own.
Persian-Kurdish mom Lela (Amira Casar, known for her standout performance in Call Me By Your Name) and her American daughter June (Ayden Mayeri) are at the Azorean Islands, enjoying a romantic vacation surrounded by honeymooners, except love brought them under other pretenses: to spread the ashes of the family’s patriarch. It's clear from their time spent on the island, having awkward conversations in between the honeymooners and the hot tour guide, that Lela and June have vast generational differences, cultural tensions, and some contrast in how they process loss. In between sarcasm (and farts), Lela is adjusting by self-soothing, while June’s instinct is to find pleasure as a distraction. During this time, they both meet Joao (José Condessa), a tour guide whose plainness, charm, and beauty spark a shift in the film’s emotional rhythm, revealing unexpected similarities between the two women. Joao takes them around the island and finds a way to connect with each of them differently. Although he’s fascinated that Lela is a therapist, he unknowingly ends up being the one to provide some counseling to both of them.
Lilian T. Mehrel finds a balance between drama and comedy, keeping the film fairly lighthearted even while Lela struggles to find her light again. She finds a comedic way of showcasing Lela’s somber mood as she doom-scrolls through current events while June scoffs at her mother, dying for a carefree holiday with a temporary companion, cute outfits, and escapism. Whether it’s June refusing to wash her mother’s back because it’s “gross” or Lela trying to cover up her daughter’s body, these moments serve as cultural and generational markers, letting the audience know how far apart they really are. Casar and Mayeri are a perfect fit for their characters, with their ability to shift between moods so quickly. Mayeri goes from scolding her mother for not allowing herself to enjoy the trip to her millennial humor that shows a daughter still cringing at things her mother does, even at an adult age. The film moves between Lela’s silent sorrow and June’s desire to retreat from real life in a funny and entertaining way.
When they begin to sightsee, the island and the views are absolutely stunning. Visually, Honeyjoon is the kind of film that requires very little extravagance, as the Azorean landscape is already so naturally cinematic it seems to do half the work. It gives cinematographer Inés Gowland a head start, and one of the most captivating parts of the film is the symmetry in the scenic shots, so pleasing to the eye that audiences everywhere will recognize her gift.
Under the film’s surface is a kind of emotional distance that neither character has figured out how to navigate. Lela’s grief isn’t just about losing a husband; it’s shaped by a life disrupted by a revolution and by the headlines she doom-scrolls through that remind her of the past she thought the world left behind. Lela’s reactions to her country’s affairs aren’t detachment; they’re anxiety, and they reflect what survival looks like. June was raised in a different world her parents provided for her and has the privilege and desire to feel everything, fix everything, and move on. The distance between them isn’t just generational. It’s shaped by their history, migration, and the different kinds of freedom they’ve each had to strive for. The film doesn’t always press into that space as much as it could, leaving me wishing it would either dig deeper or remove it altogether, because that specific theme merited more attention.
As beautiful as the landscape is, and as funny as the awkward moments between mother and daughter are, the best part of this film is watching both characters find their way back to each other despite the emotional obstacles. Both characters end up adopting parts of each other that allow the healing to begin. Even the moment when June and Joao are finally left alone doesn’t compare. June learns things about her father she never knew, and Mayeri’s keen ability to show the realization that you never fully know your parents or their dynamic with one another is compelling to watch.
In the end, character-wise, I did find some of June’s reactions a little unusual for her age. Her inability or unwillingness to engage with her mother’s moods sometimes felt out of place. Perhaps if her reactions had gone deeper than just “let’s have a good time,” “stop scrolling,” or “no, I won’t wash your back,” I would have found them more convincing. I do think Mehrel did a great job adding in multiple themes without overwhelming us, but I would have liked to see the film either dig deeper into the political and revolutionary theme, especially Lela’s relationship to her past and her country, or scale them back to focus more fully on the emotional terrain between mother and daughter. The multilayered themes are timely and compelling, but the film’s emotional resonance might have been even stronger with a sharper focus on their trauma bonding and grief.
Overall, even with some moments that could have benefited from digging deeper, while maintaining its light humor, this film is rich in themes. It’s a tender and humorous look at grief and the many ways it can show up in your life. Honeyjoon is a sweet, authentic film that will resonate with people no matter what.
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NOVEMBER|ELEVENTH RATING
3.5 STARS.
