Starting with the cast, just by having Dame Judi Dench featuring, let alone starring, one immediately expects the film to be to a high standard. Dench takes the lead role of Laura Henderson, a wealthy widow who invests in the Windmill Theatre just before World War II breaks out. With no experience in show-business, she recruits Vivien Van Damm, played brilliantly by Bob Hoskins. Dench and Hoskin's carry the film, with fantastic on screen chemistry, and if one was to judge the film solely on their performances then I would rank it much higher than 5/10.
The problem with 'Mrs Henderson Presents' is the plot. One is expected to believe everything put forward in the film because of what is almost obligatory in any award winning film now - it is 'based upon a true story'. How much is true, but there are moments in the film that were tedious, tenuous and just begging for the editor's scissors. Despite her best efforts, Dench's scene's with a gravestone in a war cemetery in France aren't moving, because it is so hard to have sympathy with her character - an extremely wealthy, arrogant upper class pensioner. The use of archive footage from World War II also broke the film up, and made it a jagged, rather than smooth, plot. Parts of the film are simply unbelievable and others confusing as to what the film is trying to say. Dench actively encourages one of the girls to all but whore herself out to a soldier, and is later at least partly responsible for her death - yet this isn't dealt with other than a quick line "There are things I have done that I regret". This is brought up in the finale of the film, a big speech Mrs Henderson gives to the crowd who want to get into the recently closed down theatre (due to the danger of crowds congregating - due to the Blitz). The speech is awful, truly awful. She justifies the girl's death by the fact that she lost a son in the Great War - and this in turn is expected to explain her behaviour with Van Damm, the girls and her friends...but it isn't explored in the film. The speech seems a cop-out.
It would be unfair to focus on the negative points of this film, because there are many positives, if not just the fabulous soundtrack. The supporting cast are great (especially Will Young, who's opening line is sublime), the costumes are spot on and the atmosphere given inside the theatre are brilliant. There are moments of great humour with Dench and Hoskins, who's will they/won't they relationship is key to the film. Perhaps the biggest triumph for this film is the fact that the nudity really is dealt with artfully, something I really wasn't expecting.
In conclusion, Mrs Henderson Presents is a film which is rather like a supermodel: beautiful to look at but really there's no substance.
The problem with 'Mrs Henderson Presents' is the plot. One is expected to believe everything put forward in the film because of what is almost obligatory in any award winning film now - it is 'based upon a true story'. How much is true, but there are moments in the film that were tedious, tenuous and just begging for the editor's scissors. Despite her best efforts, Dench's scene's with a gravestone in a war cemetery in France aren't moving, because it is so hard to have sympathy with her character - an extremely wealthy, arrogant upper class pensioner. The use of archive footage from World War II also broke the film up, and made it a jagged, rather than smooth, plot. Parts of the film are simply unbelievable and others confusing as to what the film is trying to say. Dench actively encourages one of the girls to all but whore herself out to a soldier, and is later at least partly responsible for her death - yet this isn't dealt with other than a quick line "There are things I have done that I regret". This is brought up in the finale of the film, a big speech Mrs Henderson gives to the crowd who want to get into the recently closed down theatre (due to the danger of crowds congregating - due to the Blitz). The speech is awful, truly awful. She justifies the girl's death by the fact that she lost a son in the Great War - and this in turn is expected to explain her behaviour with Van Damm, the girls and her friends...but it isn't explored in the film. The speech seems a cop-out.
It would be unfair to focus on the negative points of this film, because there are many positives, if not just the fabulous soundtrack. The supporting cast are great (especially Will Young, who's opening line is sublime), the costumes are spot on and the atmosphere given inside the theatre are brilliant. There are moments of great humour with Dench and Hoskins, who's will they/won't they relationship is key to the film. Perhaps the biggest triumph for this film is the fact that the nudity really is dealt with artfully, something I really wasn't expecting.
In conclusion, Mrs Henderson Presents is a film which is rather like a supermodel: beautiful to look at but really there's no substance.