Film Reviews

Mrs Henderson Presents

• Rating:
• Director: Stephen Frears
• Starring: Bob Hoskins
• Details: UK, 103mins, 15s.

When Mrs. Henderson (Dench), a bored widow, buys a run-down theatre and holds weekly revues, she employs the help of talented director Vivian Van Damm (Hoskins) to try something different and risque and something that London has never seen before - a nude review show that will help plummeting attendances. With the government on her back objecting to the, what they feel, is a perverse show, Mrs. Henderson convinces them to let her run the review as long as the nudes don't move - thus becoming more like museum art. Just as everything falls into place the Blitz hits and threatens to close the theatre. Dench plays against type, turning what could have been sour upper-class English madam, into a downright fire-cracker. Bubbly and quick-witted and with the sharpest of tongues, she lets loose in this film and has more fun than in any role she has ever done. Dench doesn't carry the film on her own, however, as she is helped out by her co-star - the brilliant Bob Hoskins. The sparkling inter-play between the two as they have different ideas as to what will work and what direction the theatre should go (which leads to the banning of Mrs. Henderson from her own theatre) is fun to watch and the verbal dance around what is very obviously a simmering sexual attraction, is a lesson in dialogue writing. Where it all falls down, however, is when Dench and Hoskins are not on screen together as the story is just not that interesting enough to hold attention. It's not all T and A though as kudos must be given to Bob Hoskins for getting in the spirit and dropping his keks.

Review by Gavin Burke