Particularly considering that Will Young (that annoying winner of the first “Pop Idol” reality show) is one of the key players here, but also because it’s really not my kind of movie, I was really surprised to find myself enjoying this more than expected. The titles rush by giving a hint of the pace the movie will follow (it’s a neat hundred-or-so minutes) and we immediately meet the infectious Mrs. Henderson (Judi Dench). She’s a little like Maude in Harold and Maude. Her husband has just died and only a scene or two later, she exclaims, “I’m booooored of widowhood!” So she opens a theatre.

There’s tons of fun here. It’s funny, sexy (for the boys, mainly, though maybe I’m just unaware of how appealing Bob Hoskins in the altogether may be :-p), musical, and there’s some real slap-in-the-face drama too. It’s fantastically produced and designed and I’d be shocked if this movie didn’t earn at least 5 Oscar nominations in January. And Will Young, by the way … I was already kinda turning around on him since Karen Poole wrote a song of his, but he is actually perfectly cast and turns in a magnetic performance in this movie. winces I do hope he’s not one of those 5 nominations, though, lol.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 31st, 2005 at 4:00 am in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.