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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