Roger Michell, the great director of - amongst others - "Notting Hill", "Enduring Love" and "My Cousin Rachel" died in September of last year. "The Duke" was his last feature film (a documentary on Queen Elizabeth's reign is in post-production). And what a lovely epitaph of a movie this is.
Positives:
Negatives:
Summary Thoughts on "The Duke": A delightfully quirky and entertaining British movie that should be a "must-see" for older audiences (who made up the majority of the audience at my showing). Very much recommended.
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on the web and/or Facebook. Thanks.)
Positives:
- What a wonderful sense of 'place' this movie has. Set in 1961 (the year of my birth!), real footage of London is interweaved cleverly with Broadbent to create an illusion of the character in the time. And the production design is also spot on for the filmed scenes.
- Jim Broadbent is wonderful as the quirky pensioner: when is he ever not brilliant in a movie? But the real surprise for me was Helen Mirran who really 'does a Dame Judi' here. We don't often see Mirran in these - ahem - more age-appropriate roles. At 76 years old, she is often 'dolled-up' (and very attractively too) to play someone looking much younger: for example as Queenie in "Hobbs and Shaw" and "F9". But here she dresses down and really delivers a wonderfully heartfelt performance, her best in many years in my view.
- The script crackles along with great wit, moments of sadness and the odd twist. The movie's only 96 minutes long but, as the illustrious Mrs Movie Man commented, not a minute of the running time is wasted.
- There's a lovely score by George Fenton. If you're not sashaying out of your aisle to the end title jazz music, then there's something wrong with your feet!
- A cracking reference is made to the the appearance of the painting in the Bond film "Doctor No". "Doctor No" started shooting just after Bunton stole the painting in real life. Apparantly, production designer Ken Adam had contacted the National Gallery in London to obtain a slide of the picture, painting the copy over the course of the weekend prior to filming commencing on the Monday.
Negatives:
- One minor irritation that took me out of the film for a moment was that the film-makers seem to have Newcastle located slightly south of Watford, in terms of the ease of getting from 'The Toon' to the Old Bailey. A whole bunch of characters turn up as supporters in court - including Anna Maxwell Martin's social-divide-crossing socialite and Javid Akram's baker of Pakistani heritage. That's a hell of a journey to make in 1961!
Summary Thoughts on "The Duke": A delightfully quirky and entertaining British movie that should be a "must-see" for older audiences (who made up the majority of the audience at my showing). Very much recommended.
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on the web and/or Facebook. Thanks.)