Review of Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) by Lewis P — 30 Mar 2010

Attempt to pass off burlesque show as high art.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***.

I agree with some of the other negative posters here that the premise of the film is disingenuous. We're supposed to admire Mrs. Henderson for keeping her theater open in the name of free thought but her true motive is personal profit. And was Mrs. Henderson's operation really that admirable to begin with? I don't think so. In the end it was nothing more than a mediocre burlesque show. Furthermore, I couldn't understand why anyone would keep coming back to see a bunch of nude women stand on a stage completely frozen like statutes.

The film lacked an identifiable antagonist and the conflict between Mrs. Henderson and her business manager, Van Dam, became annoying and tiresome after awhile. On the plus side, Judi Dench for the most part displays a great deal of wit and energy in her interpretation of Mrs. Henderson who is determined not to be beaten down by old age. Sometimes however there are stretches during the film that Mrs. Henderson disappears.

Overall the plot to this film is quite slight. The first third is taken up with Mrs. Henderson convincing the Lord Chamberlain to allow nude performances. Toward the end Mrs. Henderson must battle the Lord Chamberlain again as he threatens to close the theater due to safety issues during wartime. In between, a romance between Mrs. Henderson and Van Dam never blossoms into anything more than a platonic friendship. You also never really get to know the chorus girls who come off as basically unlikeable. There is also a distasteful scene where Van Dam blames Mrs. Henderson for the death of one of the chorus girls after she has fixed her up with a soldier (the chorus girl leaves the theater and is killed during one of the German bombings of London).

Overall, Mrs. Henderson is a disappointing experience. It attempts to elevate an essentially mediocre enterprise to the level of art and distorts history by suggesting the principal characters in the story were in some way heroic.