Victoria And Abdul (2017)

A young Muslim (Ali Fazal) is sent from India to England to present Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) with a gift for her golden jubilee. The Queen unexpectedly takes a liking to him and soon they become very close which disturbs the inner circle of politicians and family. Based on a book by Shrabani Basu and directed by Stephen Frears (PHILOMENA). First, the good: Judi Dench. A first rate and award worthy performance. Then, the bad: everything else! I walked out of Dench's previous effort as Victoria, MRS. BROWN and I probably should have bolted this one as well. It's worth seeing for Dench's performance but she can't redeem something as shameless as this. The film states at its beginning "based on real events" instead of "this is a true story" and they were smart to do so as everything that follows rings false. The film has a slight revisionist tone to it that I found disturbing and I was cringing by the film's sappy finale. There were some sniffles around me but all I kept thinking was, "Oh God, will this movie never end?". It finally did and I leapt from my seat without staying for the end credits like I normally do. With Eddie Izzard, Michael Gambon, Tim Piggott Smith, Olivia Williams and Simon Callow.