Film Reviews

Keeping Mum

• Rating:
• Director: Niall Johnson
• Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas
• Details: UK, 103mins, 15.

Obsessed with his sermon for the up-and-coming village convention, Rev. Walter Goodfellow (Atkinson) fails to see that his wife Gloria (Thomas) is having it away with her sleazy golf pro Lance (Swayze), his daughter Holly (Tamsin Egerton) is quickly turning into the town slut and his son Petey (Toby Parkes) is having perpetual bully trouble. Arriving to sort this mess out is Grace Hawkins (Smith), the housekeeper from hell whose unconventional methods of keeping everyone on the straight and narrow prove troublesome for the wayward family. Mixing Serial Mom's American black humour with The Vicar of Dibley's Englishness, Keeping Mum hits more than it misses (but only just) and gives a dark substance to the 'what-ho' surface. There are a couple of stand-out jokes: Patrick Swayze is a delight as once again he plays against type like he did in Donnie Darko, sending himself up in the process (but how long can he do this for?), and when Atkinson looks up religious jokes on the internet, we read and laugh along with him. There are a few bum notes as Atkinson, instead of trying something new, seems to have just recalled his bumbling Reverend from Four Weddings and a Funeral, while the downbeat, cynical ending sits rather uncomfortably with the rest of the film.

Review by Gavin Burke