Keeping Mum
Had the lushly shot opening sequence not utterly ruined the film (dramatic irony serves no narrative purpose here except to foment impatience), I think I would have enjoyed this movie much more than I did. I don’t want to ruin it for you (even as I accuse the filmmakers) since maybe you’ll catch it on cable, having missed the beginning, and maybe you will have some fun. The basic premise is this: Sweet old Maggie Smith comes to be a nanny for Rowan Atkinson and Kristin Scott Thomas, but Maggie has a past! Atkinson and Thomas set up a great movie marriage of tepid frustration and befuddled dysfunction. Enter Smith, all Mary Poppins in her uncanny ability to provide just what is wanted, and well beyond normal boundaries, it turns out.
After tapping our feet waiting for the secret (you know, the one we already know) to break, it almost does, and then nothing. Again, and - no. We the audience sigh. Once the dam breaks, this movie can either get very interesting a la Sweeney Todd, farcical like Eating Raoul, or end abruptly (or at least the the tension in the story) like Snakes on a Plane. Either way, we feel trapped as well waiting for the inevitable. Thankfully, the winsome cast does a terrific job distracting us from the elephant in the room, most of the time.
Atkinson is super as the benignly aggravating vicar. Patrick Swayze plays the flashy American golf pro with a smidge more brio than is strictly necessary (talk about contrast) but with a lot of guts. Thomas is fragile, angry, confused, all sorts of delicious and complex things, overall coming across more real and accessible than I’ve ever seen her (including Four Weddings and a Funeral).
Maggie Smith - well, of course she’s big fun as a naively wicked old lady, full of love and devoid of a moral compass. She’s like the jolly id to Professor McGonagall’s superego. Smith is great, but with awesome Emilia Fox stealing her thunder (you’ll see), the real spice gets left on the bottom of the frying pan.
The rest of the supporting cast and characters are charming and quaint (the nosy Mrs. Parker is a punny example) like the village they inhabit, Little Wallop. Whether this village name is meant to be a metaphor for the film’s ambitions or the exaggerated menace of a stalled marriage, I cannot guess. Tamsin Egerton’s turn as the teen daughter going through scary-looking (but good blokes) boyfriends like so much Kleenex was a pleasant diversion. I give the movie a rating of Catch it on HBO for the sheer pleasure of the entire cast, even if we can’t get excited by the story arc.
I would have loved for these characters to have a different plot to stretch out in. However, this story is obvious, pedestrian, humanly warm and pretty pleasant, but mostly a tragic waste of some tremendous resources. And what a delicious idea in the first place! Ah well.
MPAA Rating R-sexual situations, strong language
Release date 9/15/06
Time in minutes 103
Director Niall Johnson
Studio ThinkFilm
