That sweetness is laced into the very character of the film, which wants to be taken as a light confection. So she makes him a royal advisor, there to teach her all about the entire subcontinent where she has long ruled if never actually stepped a foot, and life is sweet again. She warms to his moxie, speaks of his good looks, and takes him on as her right-hand man, at least until the protocol-rigid chamberlains complain about a commoner spending so much time with the ostensible most powerful woman on Earth. The rich preparations are about the only thing worth paying attention to, at least until she locks eyes with Abdul (Bollywood star Ali Fazal, though recently of “Furious 7”).Ī lowly prison clerk sent from his native Agra to present the queen a coin, Abdul brazenly breaks protocol by staring the Empress of India in the eyes. Every day brings another ornate banquet, and every banquet brings countless lavish courses. Trapped in an endless cycle of luncheons, ceremonies, and royal visits, Old Vic seeks solace in food. The film picks up on the unhappy queen as a prisoner of her own court. ‘Strange Way of Life’ Review: Pedro Almodóvar’s Gay Western Short Leaves You Wanting More Swap out the Scot John Brown for the Indian Muslim Abdul, fast forward a few decades and here we go. In both versions, an underling servant grants the withdrawn Widow of Windsor a new lease on life, much to evident displeasure of her numerous attendants, political appointees, and children. Little is known about the very real relationship that existed between the aging monarch and her advisor Abdul Karim, and so Hall has essentially grafted their story onto a broad strokes retelling of Madden’s 1997 film. Brown,” a film that must have not only inspired Frears and screenwriter Lee Hall, but acted as their foundational text. Stephen Frears’ “Victoria & Abdul” is an otherwise benignly toothless, pleasantly glossy affair, but it does force us to confront one tricky question: When treating a subject as fraught as British imperial rule, when does a film’s benign inoffensiveness become offensive in and of itself? Still, that’s about the only food for thought in what is at once a breezy, lion-in-winter vehicle for Judi Dench in queen-mode and a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Noble” bit of wealth porn, and not much more.ĭench is back as Queen Victoria, returning to a role she had previously played in John Madden’s “Mrs.
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