Mrs. Henderson Presents

Mrs. Henderson Presents (Director: Stephen Frears)

MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS has been nominated for 2 Oscars:

Best Actress: Judi Dench
Best Costumes: Sandy Powell













Frears had a long career before he did Dangerous Liasons in 1988, the movie that put him on the map. He then did The Grifters in 1990, and then after that went on a run of misses like Hero and Mary Reilly. In 2000, he directed the Nick Hornby adaptation High Fidelity and in 2002 did the very good Dirty Pretty Things. Screenplay comes from Martin Sherman from an idea by David and Kathy Rose.

Any time Judi Dench is in a movie, just go ahead and give her an Oscar nomination. Since 1998's Mrs. Brown, for which she earned her first nom, she's been honored 4 more times since including this one, and won for her quickie performance in Shakespeare in Love. Not that she doesn't deserve it. She's always excellent. But I think Maria Bello (History of Violence) got shafted. And much like most of her previous nominations, it's for a movie that isn't really that great, so the film is almost entirely performance-driven. Oscar always seems to find that glittering jewel in a so-so flick every year.

In pre-World War II London, Laura Henderson (Dench) has recently been widowed and she's playing the role of the wealthy socialite, buying extravagant things and charmingly bullshitting the masses with speeches full of naivete and almost undetectable contempt for the lower class. Her first big purchase is a playhouse that she hopes to renovate and open up some Vaudevillian entertainment. She hires Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) to be the manager. They don't see eye to eye but they agree to let each other do what they do best.

Van Damm decides to run an all-day show, something that wasn't being done at the time. It's a huge success, but then everyone starts copying and the theatre isn't profitable anymore. The desperate attempt then is to do a nude show. This is of some concern to the British government, personified by Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest), but it is agreed that the women can do it as long as they don't move, kind of like paintings. Van Damm finds his first "star" with Maureen (Kelly Reilly), who becomes the leader of a group of women initially afraid to bare it all. And of course, sex sells and it's a huge hit, especially with servicemen about to be sent into the war.

And that's how the movie sort of falls off. The message is that running a nude show has a greater purpose, one that gives a ray of sunshine to men during war. It can't just be a place where men get turned on for purely base reasons--that would make the place as shameful as a burlesque. It's that Memoirs of a Geisha mentality. It's not women selling themselves...it's women providing a needed service! To call it the sex trade would make it something...cheap and tawdry, and we can't have that.

Dench is good, and Hoskins is good. Everybody does an admirable acting job, and there's some fairly good dialogue. It's actually more enjoyable than average, but watch out for the trappings of importance, that search for the Oscar, adding the weight of pretension.