It is rare that the timings at the cinema allow for me to see a double bill where one film starts just as the previous one ends. That opportunity arose this week with two new releases, and it is hard for me to think of two more diverse films to see one after the other.
First up was Mother! I have found that director Darren Aronofsky has had more misses than hits in his career, and my favourite of his, is still his debut, Pi. However, most of his films are bold and usually worth seeing, with his only prior total failure being the dreadful Noah. The first half of this latest movie sets up the story intriguingly. There is a palpable sense of dread and quite a lot of tension. A married couple played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem have moved into a remote old house. Whilst she does it up, he struggles with writer’s block as he tries to create his latest book of poetry. Late one night, a man (Ed Harris) appears at the door claiming that he was told that the place was a bed and breakfast. He seems like a kindly fellow, and is a doctor, so they tell him to stay the night. The next morning his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) turns up and that is when odd events and behaviours start.
At that point, I was really interested to see what happens next, despite some issues with the style of the movie. The continual use of close-ups, especially of Lawrence was beginning to be a bit wearing, and the relationship between the young couple was far from convincing, but Pfeiffer, in particular, was excellently chilling. Unfortunately, the second half of the film is a total disaster. As events spin ever more out of control, it becomes a bloated over indulgent mess to the point that it was practically unwatchable. Shocking for the sake of, I didn’t find it had any more merit than the worst torture porn.
As far as rating this film goes, I would give a 6 for the first half and 1 for the pretentious piffle of the second half, giving an overall score of 3.5 out of 10.
After that farrago, Victoria & Abdul felt like a breath of fresh air. Totally conventional, it is a film that would be best enjoyed on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon with a large mug of tea and small pile of digestive biscuits. Judi Dench reprises her role from 1999’s Mrs Brown as Queen Victoria, and, in some ways, this feels like a sequel to that. A couple of mentions are made of John Brown and her relationship with the Indian servant Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal) depicted in this film bears a strong resemblance to the one she had with her Scottish servant many years before.
Brought over from India with his friend Mohammed (Adeel Akhtar) to present the queen with a commemorative coin, Abdul finds the queen takes a shine to him and requests he stays to teach her about his country, his Moslem religion, and his language.
It has to be said that this pans out in a predicable way, but it remains a pleasant watch. The period trappings look as realistic as you would expect and the film makers were lucky enough to have the use of Osborne House, the queen’s Isle of Wight residence. Dench is delightful and Akhtar has most of the funniest moments. The rest of the cast are all fine, with Eddie Izzard as her frustrated son, the late Tim Pigott-Smith, in his final film appearance, Paul Higgins as Victoria’s doctor, and Fenella Woolgar all providing memorable moments.
What did not totally work for me was the character of Abdul. He is meant to be charming but I found him more calculating than that. Additionally, the film does become a little repetitive in the final act as he relatives and advisers try, on numerous occasions, to persuade the queen to cut her ties with Abdul.
But it remains eminently watchable, and it felt like a real palette cleanser after Mother!
Rating: 6.5 out of 10