Mrs. Henderson Presents (Widescreen Edition)
Actor(s):
Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Christopher Guest, Will Young, Kelly Reilly
Director(s):
Stephen Frears
Label: Weinstein Company
Publisher(s):
Weinstein Company
Studio: Weinstein Company
Manufacturer: Weinstein Company
Binding: DVD
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
MPN: 79099
Format(s): Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Rating: R (Restricted)
List Price: $28.95
Our Price: $25.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Editorial Reviews
Description
Academy Award winner1 Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love) received her fifth Oscar® nomination for her saucy, hilarious performance in Mrs. Henderson Presents. Laura Henderson (Dench) may be a widow in London but she is certainly not going to spend the rest of her days playing bridge. In a time when England is brought to its knees by war, she brings a nation to its feet in applause?with a live show featuring nude girls! Dench and Academy Award nominee2 Bob Hoskins have won critics? hearts in this stylish gem that Joe Morgenstern from The Wall Street Journal calls "one of the wittiest comedies to come our way in a very long time!" "Two hours of relentless, heart-pounding pleasure." - Rex Reed, The New York Observer 1Best Supporting Actress, Shakespeare in Love 2Best Actor, Mona Lisa
Amazon.com
The blitz-bombing of London in World War II provides the serious backdrop for the uplifting entertainment of Mrs. Henderson Presents, a delightful British comedy anchored by the flawless performances of Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. After losing a son in World War I, and becoming a widow in 1937, the wealthy and respectable Mrs. Henderson (Dench) decides that the best way to support soldiers going off to battle is to give them a wartime send-off they'll never forget. Thus, she buys and renovates the Windmill Theater in London's Soho district, hires Mr. Vivian Van Damm (Hoskins) as the impresario of an all-day musical variety show called "Revudeville," and secures permission from the censorious Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest) to include naked women in the stage show ? on the condition that the ladies remain still onstage to qualify as "art," like nude portraits in a gallery, with the "foliage" of their "midlands" discreetly obscured. "Revudeville" is an instant hit, British propriety remains tastefully intact, and as The Windmill's fortunes rise, fall, and rise again, Mrs. Henderson Presents develops an emotional depth and good-natured nobility that's perfectly matched to the comedy of tweaking British manners. Working from an eloquently witty, fact-based screenplay by Martin Sherman, director Stephen Frears (High Fidelity) brings out the best in a well-chosen cast, and Andrew Dunn's cinematography (enhanced by judicious use of digital effects to show the London blitz in progress) casts a warm, inviting glow over this winning tale of show-biz tenacity in the best and worst of times. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
better this time around
I'm an unashamed lover of the movies I grew up with in the 1940s, but some remakes easily surpass earlier versions. This one does it in spades. The glossy Rita Hayworth vehicle of 1945 put it's focus on its glamorous star who was cast as one of the dancers at The Windmill. There was only a nod in the direction of the actual Mrs Henderson. No mention of nude showgirls (it's 40s Hollywood, afterall) This newer production trumps in every category. The performances, of course, but also the cinematography, the color, costumes, dialogue and the overall feeling of the period. I don't think you have to have a deep nostalgia for those years to appreciate and, quite possibly, feel a real affection for this movie.
A Pleasant Froth
An interestingly charming based-on-a-true story of Mrs. Henderson (Judi Dench), a widowed upper-class woman in pre-WWII London who decided on a lark to buy a theater, The Windmill. Teaming up with theatrical manager Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins), they were an instant success with all-day revues but then started losing money once everyone started to copy their product. The solution? Nude girls, of course; however, this being the 1930s, nude dancing girls were beyond the pale. How they get around this little problem in dealing with the Lord Chamberlain (Christopher Guest in a nice little supporting role) is one of the fun parts of the movie.
Then it turns darker as WWII approaches, with various problems of the Blitz (the Windmill staked it's reputation on being the only theater in the West End to never closed, helped by it's being below street level). The movie never gets too dark, though, even as the bombs fall and soldiers head off to the front, due to some lovely light acting by both Dench and Hoskins and a fine supporting cast in the girls (led by an actress previously unknown to me, Kelly Reilly (seen above with Dench)). Light writing and directing (this is probably the fluffiest thing I've ever seen from Frears, though it has odd tone similarities to High Fidelity) keep things on an even keel and it all turns into a nice frothy concoction that's just fun to watch.
If you like Judi Dench...
If you like Judi Dench and anything she's done, you will like Mrs. Henderson. Altho she seems a bit starchy at the beginning of the film,you'll find yourself ready the lead cheers for her by the end.
A real life comedy
The genius of comedy lies in showing us truth with a smile. That is why comedies in fact reveal deeper truths about about the human spirit than any drama. You would never know it from most critics and serious people, but in the long run comedies often outlast their dramtic contemporaries and we are still quoting from them years after they appear. As one example, even if another film won the Oscar I agree with Roger Ebert that JUNO was easily the best film of 2007. And we will be watching it long after the Oscar winner (whoever that was) is forgotten.
So how about a comedy based upon a real event. Might that be even deeper and more meaningful? It is at least possible that it would and in this gem it actually proves to be so. While there are a lot of elements of this story that are fictionalized the main story in fact really happened: The really was a Mrs Henderson and she really did do what the film shows her doing. And London was the richer for it. No doubt most of the details were fiction, but the main outline was truth. And so on the framework of this real, true story a genuine masterpeice has been constructed. I thought that the various elements, including the tragic notes, were mixed wonderfully and the Ms Dench's performance was pitch perfect, but so were the performances of many of the other actors in this film. To the extent that the story may appear contrived to some I think that this was simply reflects the tension of presenting a work of fiction that is built on a historical fact: History and Art bumping in to each other. This film had moments of witty repartee and of slapstick, but also some very emotional poignant ones, quite appropriate to celebrating the triumph of a people who withstood a terrible situation.
Not the Bawdy Exercise You'd Expect
The print ads would have you expect "Mrs Henderson Presents" to be high-brow exploitation. Nothing could be further from the truth. The film is a celebration of womanhood and extolls the beauty of women particularly in it's naked form. The film has many positive attributes. Primarily the lead performances of Judi Dench as the backer of vaudvillean review shows who suggests nudity in her productions not out of the profit motive but more for altruistic reasons. Bob Hoskins is also outstanding as the gruff producer that Mrs. Henderson hires. The dynamic between these two fine actors is kinetic. There's the initial antagonism that evolves into a mutual respect between the two that ultimately leads to a platonic love. Christopher Guest gives a good turn as the stuffy Lord Chamberlain and Kelly Reilly gives a memorable account as an ill-fated performer. The film is anchored by the sure hand of master director Stephen Frears and the film sports very authentic detail for the period it's covering, England between 1937 and 1942. It's unfortunate that films like this are slapped with the "R" rating because there's little to offend here and mature adolescents should appreciate the movie.
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