Toronto

Mrs. Henderson Presents

 (U.K.)

By DAVID ROONEY

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Bob Hoskins and Judi Dench star in WWII-set 'Mrs. Henderson Presents.'

A Weinstein Co. release of a Pathe Pictures, BBC Films presentation in association with Future Films, Micro-Fusion, the Weinstein Co., U.K. Film Council of a Heyman-Hoskins production. Produced by Norma Heyman. Executive producers, Bob Hoskins, David Aukin. Executive producers for BBC Films, David M. Thompson, Tracey Scoffield. Executive producers for Pathe, Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken. Directed by Stephen Frears. Screenplay, Martin Sherman.
 
Laura Henderson - Judi Dench
Vivian Van Damm - Bob Hoskins
Bertie - Will Young
Lord Cromer - Christopher Guest
Maureen - Kelly Reilly
Lady Conway - Thelma Barlow
 

Having brought a distinctively gritty edge throughout his career both to film and television projects, Stephen Frears disappoints with the bland imprint he leaves on "Mrs. Henderson Presents." A bigscreen feature executed with a cookie-cutter small-screen sensibility, this often charming but untextured fact-based period piece is buoyed along by the redoubtable Judi Dench, giving an acerbic reading of a formidable woman. But the failure to create tangible conflicts or satisfyingly developed characters around her is problematic. Still, theater luvvies, Anglophiles and lavender ladies will eat it up, providing a small commercial niche for this Weinstein Co. release.

Unlike last year's "Being Julia," also set in the West End legit world in the same period but marked by lack of authenticity, Frears has made a very British movie with a nostalgic, nationalistic flavor. And like the Istvan Szabo pic, this one owes whatever bite it has to a colorful and commanding female title character.

Chief shortcoming is the script by Martin Sherman (best known for the plays "Bent" and "Rose"), here working in a pedestrian telepic mode that ambles superficially through events making the WWII London blitz as dramatically thin as the story's various romantic and personal entanglements. In its pleasant approach and innocuous personality, the film is not unlike Dench's TV vehicle "The Last of the Blonde Bombshells."

Everything starts promisingly, with Sherman's facility for barbed, Wildean dialogue finding a happy match in Dench's deliciously dry manner. Opening with Mr. Henderson's London funeral in 1937, the script sketches the sense of mischief afforded Henderson's widow (Dench) by her emergence from his shadow. Freshly returned to England after their long residence in India, Laura Henderson clearly shuns the traditional grieving wife role; she takes to the river for some vigorous rowing in full funeral garb, tiring quickly of smiling at guests.

Her upper-crust pal Lady Conway (Thelma Barlow) advises that widowhood offers such consolations as hobbies, purchases, charity work and lovers. But instead, Mrs. H. buys a derelict Soho theater on Great Windmill Street. Needing an impresario to stage musical revues, she hires Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins), an experienced pro whose proud refusal to bend to her imperious commands appeals to Mrs. Henderson.

The thorny relationship between the two is the nominal heart of the movie. But therein lies the problem. While the posh, poised chap is not a natural fit for rough-edged Hoskins (and his hairdo is disturbingly similar to Mrs. Henderson's), the actor does fine by the likable role. But Sherman's script struggles to bring the character to life. Despite driving much of the action, Van Damm remains a dim satellite orbiting the far more interesting Mrs. H.

Frears plods through theater renovation, auditions, rehearsals, and the swift rise and fall of the Windmill's non-stop vaudeville show before getting into Mrs. Henderson's brainwave to emulate the venue's Paris namesake, the Moulin Rouge, with a nude revue. There's a very funny scene in which Laura descends on the stuffy Lord Chamberlain (Christopher Guest, doing a droll caricature), overcoming his legal objections by promising to confine the T&A display to tasteful tableaux vivants. But whenever Dench absents herself from the action, the momentum sags.

Sherman creates artificial conflicts by flooring the unflappable Laura with the late revelation that Vivian is married. But her supposed romantic feelings for him are too sketchily drawn; she's too self-possessed a woman to be credibly overpowered the way the script would have it. Her retreat from the theater then subsequent return to spy and meddle feel like plot filler, and the onset of war and air raids brings little dramatic muscle.

A subplot in which Mrs. Henderson plays cupid with tragic results between a spellbound soldier and the revue's blonde centerpiece Maureen (Kelly Reilly) is undermined by the lack of definition and emotional investment in the latter's character. The director and writer work hard to crank up the poignancy as the theater becomes an oasis for soldiers during wartime; the parallel between such stiff-upper-lip resilience in times of crisis and the West End's swiftness in bouncing back to full operations after this summer's terrorist attacks is evident. But ultimately, the movie has no focus: the Henderson-Van Damm sparring match, their entrepreneurial endeavors, the ability of entertainment to supply solace from adversity, all are too insubstantial to provide narrative backbone.

The film's real strength is in its portrait -- and Dench's feisty embodiment -- of a reckless, independent spirit. The actress graciously acknowledges Mrs. Henderson's awareness of her own flaws, and while she's shortchanged by too-early disclosure of the tragic past loss that feeds her sympathy for the young soldiers, her galvanic speech in the final act touches the right emotional chords.

Like George Fenton's prosaic score, the musical numbers are period-appropriate but somewhat unimaginative and underwhelmingly staged. Some cheesy theatrical backdrops are employed for London's WWII skyline, but in general, the modest production is tidily appointed, with costumer Sandy Powell's customary stylish flourishes confined mainly to the title character's mildly eccentric dowager ensembles.

Camera (Technicolor), Andrew Dunn; editor, Lucia Zucchetti; music, George Fenton; production designer, Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski; art director, Tony Woollard; set decorator, Claudia Parker; costume designer, Sandy Powell; sound (Dolby Digital), Peter Lindsay; line producers, Laurence Borg, Kevan Van Thompson; choreography, Eleanor Fazan, Debbie Astell; musical numbers, Fazan; special effects supervisor, Graham Longhurst; associate producers, David and Kathy Rose; assistant director, Stuart Renfrew; casting, Leo Davis. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala), Sept. 9, 2005. Running time: 103 MIN.
 

With: Anna Brewster, Rosalind Halstead, Sarah Solemani, Natalia Tena, Doraly Rosen.