Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)

I marked this review for spoilers, but I'd like to reiterate that I do spoil a major character ending further on in this review. Don't read after the next paragraph if you want to avoid.Watching Bob Hoskins and Judi Dench on screen together was, I admit, extremely satisfying. Their characters are fun and funny and they manage to make two characters with quite prickly exteriors very likable. Oh, and let me not forget the scenes with Dench and Christopher Guest, which range from cute to hysterical. As for the film itself, the music is good, the sets pretty, but I was in the end not very satisfied with it. Having said that, and before I go onto that rather large spoiler, I must note that I still rewatch it on occasion specifically because the flaw of the movie doesn't overpower my love of watching Dench, Hoskins and Guest, or the pleasure of the musical numbers, which are very nicely done, and from what I understand accurately reflect the sort of themes the real Van Damm created.Dench and Hoskins' storyline is good, but the side story of Maureen - and how it's worked into Dench's storyline - was just such too mawkish for my tastes. I dislike it when they kill off a character just to drag sentiment into a story - it just feels cheap and tends to dampen my enjoyment of a film when that happens. This was a pretty good example of that. There was no real reason for her storyline - her character was sweet, her scenes very pretty, but then she gets offed at the end just so Dench's character can make a pretty little speech that keeps the Windmill from closing down. That, for me, is what takes it from a movie I rate highly and recommend to friends to a movie that I watch for the good parts, but generally don't bother bringing up in recommendation discussions.

London, late 1930s: A recently widowed elderly Mrs. Henderson (Judi Dench) is bored with the ordinary upper class widow's life and buys an old theater called the Windmill on a whim. Together with director Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) she creates an initially successful musical revue, but soon finds out that something more is needed to keep the show interesting. Inspired by the legendary Moulin Rouge in Paris, they come up with the idea of using immobile nude actresses in their shows and attract huge popularity, but the impending World War 2 casts a dark shadow over the joyful cast and crew of the Windmill.There is a lot to like in the film: the sets, props and costumes are carefully created and the musical numbers are catchy and fun. We also get to see a good deal of the once-controversial nudity, but it is not the main appeal of the movie by any means since it is either artistic posing or comedic strolling between the shows. Most of the comedy is provided by Judi Dench's lovable performance as the seemingly fussy but determined Mrs. Henderson and her comical arguing with the often frustrated director Van Damm. In addition to the obvious but restrained attraction between the two, the plot also follows the story of Maureen (Kelly Reilly), one of the actresses who gets involved with a young soldier Bertie (Will Young) on Henderson's suggestion.Despite the film's comedic approach to the partly true story, darker themes are also examined. The effect of the War has a more or less direct effect on the theater crew, as Mrs. Henderson has lost her only son in the previous World War and can see his memory in the young soldiers who now frequent her theater. Ultimately such melancholic character traits and the message about perseverance and the futility of war are left pretty trivial though, probably to not distract from the fun too much. In the end, Mrs. Henderson Presents remains a light comedy with entertaining music and plenty of British charm, but not much more. It's a very watchable film in any case, and I recommend it to any fan of music-filled comedies and history of musical theater.

Elderly though indefatigable British widow in 1937 decides (seemingly on a whim) to invest her time and money into renovating a shuttered theatre in London, hiring a savvy show manager to coordinate the programs and help her with such wonderful tasks as auditions. After several weeks of success, the lovingly bickering business partners find the West End is draining them of their audiences, so Mrs. Henderson nonchalantly offers an invaluable solution: to bring the frisky style of France's Moulin Rogue to England--but will the stuffy Lord Chamberlain permit them to showcase nude women on the stage? Alternately endearing and creaky mixture of comedy, drama, pathos, sentiment, and war-time nostalgia easily gets by on the strength of stars Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins (who also served as executive producer). The editing is a bit sloppy, rendering the narrative slapdash on occasion, while the WWII backdrop is so artificially presented it seems almost to represent a fantasy (perhaps intentionally). However, Dench is a winner, creating an enjoyable and three-dimensional characterization: at once willful, exasperating and loving. She's both mother-hen to her girls and wife-substitute to Hoskins, who works very well with her. Watching this great actress glide through the simple material so bemusedly reaps its own rewards and, though the heaviness of the film's midsection appears to be leading nowhere, the picture does finally move us by focusing on character instead of on incident. **1/2 from ****

This film dramatizes a real-life event in British theater history; the story of the old Windmill Theatre in the West End, which never closed from its opening in 1937 until it finally shut down in 1962. Even during the Blitz, with the German bombers flying overhead, the theater still offered its patrons the chance to see still-life nudes interspersed with comedy offerings. "Mrs. Henderson Presents" tells a good story, but leaves out some fundamental details - particularly the fact that the revues always contained stand-up comedians, who had the difficult job of trying to entertain audiences who had come only to look at the nude girls. Some of Britain's most famous artistes of the 40s and 50s cut their teeth at the theater, including Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, and Tony Hancock. In addition "Mrs. Henderson Presents" unfortunately becomes a little soapy towards the end, as it depicts the love-hate relationship between the eponymous central character (Judi Dench) and Vivian van Damm (Bob Hoskins). Moreover the girls themselves are shown as almost too good to be true; director Stephen Frears does not depict the squalor of their lives as they were forced to live as well as work in the theater. Nonetheless if you fancy a feel-good movie, then "Mrs. Henderson Presents" is worth a look.