Review of Victoria & Abdul (2017) by Marcel A — 09 Oct 2017

This fictionalized account of Queen Victoria's friendship with an Indian Muslim servant-turned-spiritual advisor gives Dame Judi Dench the rare opportunity to revisit a role she first portrayed two decades ago in 'Mrs.

Brown'. Naturally, she's no less beguiling as the iconic monarch the second time around. [There must exist some kind of obscure British law which forbids her to give a bad performance.] That being said, her afffecting work here is the only good reason to sit through director Stephen Frears' one-note trudge through this little known chapter of British history.

The entire movie is pitched as a shrill power struggle between her xenophobic staff of stuffy aristocrats and the aging queen herself, whose unlikely bond with the kindly Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal) drives her underlings to hysterics.

Frustratingly, the script presents the underwritten Karim as little more than an overachieving svengali whose occasional acts of deceit are never explained; his single-minded devotion to Victoria is so strong that his lack of regard for both his wife and his long-suffering co-hort Mohammed is brushed aside with nary a thought, even when the consequences of this neglect prove tragic.

That said, there's definitely a market for this kind of handsome-looking, syrupy style of history lesson - it's cinematic chicken soup for the undiscerning soul: all broth, no meat.