Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War (2003)

Entertaining - as what might happen to us all in many ways. On the other hand the awful prospect of life in an institutional setting is horrible. There are many versions of State sanctioned deprivation of liberty - each designed to enhance community well-being that might be compromised by health, behaviour and stranger status. There many stories of abuse in each - to children, aged and ... The fact that she managed to lead an escape is entertaining and even encouraging as we approach 'that' age. But could we? Maybe we should do something before we get there. Just like Yes Minister. Government and public administration is occasionally hilarious. But shouldn't we do something about it? I loved it and have helped many friends work through it as entertainment and as a warning.

I viewed and taped this production when it was first shown on TV, and recently had an occasion to re-watch it. I loved it even better the second time around.It's the tale of a woman forced, by the death of her obnoxious husband and the designs of her avaricious son and his equally greedy wife, to retire to a residential nursing home. She does not find things to her liking. It is run by a strict regime, and although not overly mistreated, the elderly inmates are not exactly handled with due reverence either. The new arrival, Mrs Thelma Caldicot is about to change all that...and how! Hopefully I trust not many (none would be better) of these types of establishments are run as depicted here. Even more so as I'm getting on a bit myself, and one can never be quite certain of the future. However, I have my fingers crossed.Reminiscent of the American made-for-TV movie, "Amos" (1985) starring an ageing Kirk Douglas, which more poignantly explored a similar theme (as indeed to some extent did a certain two-part episode of "One Foot in the Grave"), "Cabbage War" takes a somewhat less cynical view of things. This results in a robustly delightful, slightly over-the-top comedy, with real life man & wife team John Alderton and Pauline Collins for once in opposition to each other, and playing their parts with perfection and relish. In such a distinguished and superbly chosen cast it's difficult (after Pauline Collins) to pick out the star of the piece. They are all just simply wonderful. Not wishing to spoil it for those who haven't as yet seen it, I won't delve further into the storyline. Suffice it to say that it's one not to be missed.

Pauline Collins, who shone so brightly in Shirley Valentine, fails to rescue this lamely scripted and poorly acted British comedy. The plot concerns Mrs Caldicot, a widow who is tricked out of her house and into a retirement home, where she is sedated and forced to sign over her property to her son.She soon realises that she and her fellow residents, who are also sedated to keep them quiet, are being treated unfairly and foments a rebellion against the home's smarmy manager.But this comedic take on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is mired in pantomime-quality acting and naive plotting in which old people are never disorientated or distressed, and journalists pay for scores of pensioners to be put up in a country house hotel.I have no idea what Vernon Coleman's novel was like, but it is unlikely that the set decorator who adapted it made many improvements.It made just £16,400 at the British box office. I would be surprised if most of those who parted with their money did not ask for it back.

The best comedy is often based on something real. This gives the audience something it can relate to and can provide a real bite to the comedy. The topic may not be funny, as is the case in this movie about how we can mistreat our elderly. But by finding the humour in the subject and poking fun at it, it makes the audience acknowledge the topic, even if only briefly.The movie is the story of Mrs Caldicot and her fight against bullies for the right to be her own person. It is about the triumph of the 'little woman', that is in the sense of common ordinary folk, although it is also the sort of condescending description that her late unlamented husband may well have used to describe her.The movie is, however, a caricature, with no shades of grey. The bad guys are so completely bad, the rest home is so horrible, and Mrs Caldicot wins so overwhelmingly. She even ends with a romantic interest. The film makers had evidently decided that as the movie had moved well away from reality, much like several of the inmates at the rest home, they felt no need for any restraint in devising a happy ending. The saddest thing about the film is that even though rest homes are not, I hope, as bad as portrayed, we often do not treat our elderly as well as we could, and in real life there is no happy ending.However, the movie does not pretend to be anything but a light-hearted comedy. It was always amusing and at times extremely funny. Who would have thought that seeing one of the characters placing a newspaper over his fac e could have been so funny, and there was a delicious irony in the situation he had found himself in. Many of the people in the audience I shared the theatre with were on the mature side of life (alright, old) and they found the movie highly amusing, perhaps because it had a particular resonance for them. They also laughed at several jokes that went right over my head. Never mind, my time will come soon enough.