Re: Victoria & Abdul reviews
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 5:47 pm
I'm closer to Uri's take; I found the movie pretty close to insufferable.
I found Abdul an impenetrable character. Was he just a hustler, looking with contempt on Victoria as he fed her lies about India (lies she gobbled up, apparently the least-informed person in the royal family)? Or was he a guy with the soul of a slave, willingly giving himself over to servitude for a nice house and hot meals? The movie didn't tell me. All it seemed to want to give me was warm fuzzies over Victoria finding a playmate in her dotage.
I was VERY confused by the time-scheme. Near the end of the film, when Victoria said she was sick and near death, I thought, impossible: she doesn't die till after the century turns, and this movie was set in 1887. Wait: I'm supposed to think 14 years have gone by? There was nothing that conveyed that to me; I didn't even notice anyone's make-up suggesting years passing.
I'm a great fan of both Eddie Izzard and Olivia Williams, but they give clownish performances here. As for Dench...she has a couple of Oscar-hunting scenes in the film's last half-hour, and she pulls them off like the pro she is. Were she trying to crash the best actress slate of, say, 2014 or 2009, I'd shrug it off. But with very strong, far more interesting performances already fighting for a spot on this year's crowded ballot, for her to slip through would be one of those "oh, Academy, will you ever grow up?" moments.
But I'm sure it'll get the obligatory costume design nomination. Ho-hum.
I found Abdul an impenetrable character. Was he just a hustler, looking with contempt on Victoria as he fed her lies about India (lies she gobbled up, apparently the least-informed person in the royal family)? Or was he a guy with the soul of a slave, willingly giving himself over to servitude for a nice house and hot meals? The movie didn't tell me. All it seemed to want to give me was warm fuzzies over Victoria finding a playmate in her dotage.
I was VERY confused by the time-scheme. Near the end of the film, when Victoria said she was sick and near death, I thought, impossible: she doesn't die till after the century turns, and this movie was set in 1887. Wait: I'm supposed to think 14 years have gone by? There was nothing that conveyed that to me; I didn't even notice anyone's make-up suggesting years passing.
I'm a great fan of both Eddie Izzard and Olivia Williams, but they give clownish performances here. As for Dench...she has a couple of Oscar-hunting scenes in the film's last half-hour, and she pulls them off like the pro she is. Were she trying to crash the best actress slate of, say, 2014 or 2009, I'd shrug it off. But with very strong, far more interesting performances already fighting for a spot on this year's crowded ballot, for her to slip through would be one of those "oh, Academy, will you ever grow up?" moments.
But I'm sure it'll get the obligatory costume design nomination. Ho-hum.