“You tell *Her Majesty* that if her husband were here he’d tell her to get out of the house and get some air into her lungs. ” – John Brown
Number of Times Seen – 1 (10 Jul 2016)
Brief Synopsis – After she is widowed, Queen Victoria of England sends for one of her husband’s best friends and their friendship develops into something much more over the years
My Take on it – I never even heard about this movie until years after it came out and only now had the chance to even see what it was all about.
That probably has a lot to do with the fact that most of the world didn’t even know who Judi Dench was until she won an Oscar two years later playing Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love (1998).
On, the other hand, I have known about Billy Connolly ever since he replaced Howard Hessman as the teacher on the TV show Head of the Class i the 80’s and always loved his brand of humor.
Obviously, this film isn’t a comedy, but the use of Connolly as the male lead works well because he is easily perceived as one who goes against the norm and could make the character of John Brown.
Connolly and Dench have great chemistry together and it’s so nice to watch their characters interact and grow over the course of the film.
The story itself is done well and gives us all lots of insight as to how royalty was treated and how sometimes protocol doesn’t need to be completely followed down to the letter of the law.
I personally didn’t know much about this time and place in history and was happy to be enlightened by it all.
Bottom Line – Both Connolly and Dench are amazing here. The story builds up quite nicely while giving us insight into how a royal is treated by her subjects and how sometimes things need to be changed. Great history lesson about a time and place that I personally knew very little about. Recommended!
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The film had originally been planned for release on television only. Thanks to Harvey Weinstein, who was sufficiently impressed with the film, it was ultimately accorded a theatrical release. (From IMDB)
Rating – Globe Worthy
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