Day 167 - Victoria and Abdul



Day 167          Victoria and Abdul [2017]
                          
Screenplay                    Lee Hall
Based on                       ‘Victoria & Abdul’ by Shrabani Basu
Director                         Stephen Frears
Cinematography            Danny Cohen
Music                            Thomas Newman
Leads                            Judi Dench, Ali Fazal, Eddie Izzard, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Michael Gambon, Tim Piggot-Smith
Production                     BBC Films, Perfect World Pictures, Working Title Films, Cross Street Films

IMDb                                 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes                66%

An underwhelming film when you consider its credentials. The writer of Billy Elliot and War Horse, the director of The Queen, Philomena and The Grifters, the cinematographer behind This Is England, The Boat That Rocked and plenty more, and of course Dame Judi Dench herself. The film is an imagination of a true story only uncovered recently. That of a friendship Queen Victoria had with an Indian servant named Abdul Karim. The story itself is quite remarkable but there was something annoying about the film – I think mostly that it was too fluffy around the ears. The story is one of scandal and of the royal family hiding a shameful secret. Instead we get a cushy tale of friendship with the odd scornful look from Eddie Izzard. I wonder whether they just wanted to get this film out so rushed the production when perhaps they could have chosen a better script, or at least pulled it off better. Rather than appealing to all audiences they seem to have appealed to very few. I’m being rather mean here and I usually don’t feel bad about being mean. But with this film it feels like bullying a small child rather than teasing a mate. Know what I mean? Hopefully, because that’s me done with this one.

Acting                           2.5 / 4
Writing                            2 / 4
Cinematography              3 / 4
Music                           2.5 / 4
HWF rating                 2 / 4

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