Review of Victoria & Abdul (2017) by Kapten V — 05 Oct 2017

Before seeing Victoria and Abdul", I was secretly hoping the movie would be about Noisy Nation's lead singer Artur Abdul's triumphant return to stardom, including marrying the newest Mrs Estonia (whose name is Viktoria by the way).

Actually, it's a 120 years old true story, about aging Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) withering away on the throne of the British empire, basically just waiting for death. Then she strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal) whose good spiritual influence helps her to find her way again.

Also appearing: Adeel Akhtar, Eddie Izzard, Fenella Woolgar, Julian Wadham, Michael Gambon, Olivia Williams, Paul Higgins, Simon Callow, Tim Pigott-Smith.

I started the review with a joke that has only a tiny probability to be understood, even if I explained it to you.

Had two reasons for this: I find it quite amusing myself (I am my most important audience and critic anyway), and this kind of conceptual joke working on different levels seemed oddly appropriate considering what this movie is really about.

By the latter I mean that Victoria and Abdul" is the easiest type of movie to be overlooked, so one does not get" it.

Look at any promotional material and what do you see? Judi Dench is playing a cranky old queen striking a friendship with lower class citizen (very bad thing at her time) and finding happiness again, right?

It's really easy to see only the crowd-pleasing feel-good aspect of the story which screams royalties... they are just people too". After all, a remarkable number of such-themed movies or series has been released in the last 10-15 years alone. Not to mention "old actors playing old people" movies which is a popular "genre" too.

It's also easy to be entertained or bored only by the most straightforward, crowd-pleasing part of the movie, because it works really well too. I watched it in cinema, and other people were often laughing, or wiping tears during the sadder parts.

But the story is actually deeper and more varied than that, which was a pleasant surprise considering I didn't even plan to watch V&A" in the first place, having very little interest in the private lives of British royal family and all.

The more hidden part - well, maybe not hidden, but more easily overlooked part - ponders about the main existential themes in the human life.

In context of the particular story I'd summarize it as follows: they study what keeps us going in life, and what keeps us going when one has achieved everything one can come up with rationally.

It is interesting to see the shadow side of the power - on one hand, it gives you much more personal freedom. On the other hand, however, it creates one new forms of prison, separating from the others and making one addicted to it.

It gets increasingly difficult to let go of it even if one doesn't enjoy it any more. It may be lonely up there" alone but at the same time it frightens to break down the self-built walled garden because you don't see any alternatives either. Come to think of it, it's true about life in general too, not only having power over people.

The performances are wonderful. The cast have the skills and a keen eye to play all the abovementioned themes out in detail, whether just for laughs or philosophical digesting, depending on the viewer.

The main attention is, of course, on Judi Dench essentially reprising the role from 20 years earlier (Mrs. Brown") which brought her the very first Oscar nom she had. She never tries to dominate the screen but her great natural and magnetic screen presence can't be denied, of course.

Also, there's a fearless dedication to showing all the getting old thing in gory" details, with flagging skin, curdled mimics, draggy movements and all.

I don't know how much of it was just acting, but she really is pretty old, turning 83 in December. It's probably not easy to face your own mortality while acting it out on screen, in any case.

Great performance overall, and awards shouldn't be out of question. It is kind of silly, after all, that thespian this legendary has gotten her only Academy Award for trivial role as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespare in Love", where she has eight minutes of screen time.

There's maybe not much mainstream attention left for Ali Fazal as the other lead, but he's actually very good too.

The young Indian actor hasn't done many movies yet but he's superbly enjoyable in a role which requires a certain amount of simple mainstream ethnical humor but also sincerity, lightness and soulfulness that you couldn't probably just act without not finding in yourself first.

If I can name anything wrong with Victoria and Abdul", I would probably tone it down a little while showing the reactions of enraged royal family and court members who just can't take seeing lower-class person having so much influence over the the person with the ultimate power.

There's enough visual details such as angry faces to make their feelings clear enough - they don't really have to say things like what the hell is going on here?" all the time. In this aspect the movie can feel a little overcooked" at times, but luckily it didn't ruin the experience for me.

V&A" is pretty great watch, both as simple entertainment and a little deeper examination of what makes us value life in general.

Director Stephen Frears has given us a fair share of noteworthy movies over the 50 years he's been releasing them, including Dangerous Liaisons", High Fidelity", The Queen", and Philomena" (one of my favorite movies released in 2013, also starring Judi Dench). I say Victoria and Abdul" is a worthy addition to his legacy.