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'Mrs. Brown' no hotbed of passion
But the performances are top-notch
September 12, 1997
Web posted at: 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT)From Movie Reviewer Paul Tatara
(CNN) --"Mrs. Brown," the story of the much-gossiped-about friendship between Queen Victoria and her stubborn Scottish manservant, John Brown, is a vividly photographed film that sometimes leans toward being about great, foaming-at-the- mouth passion. But it's repeatedly held at arm's length.
Like Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence," which I felt was even more elegant and equally anticlimactic (considering the time it must have taken to sew the curtains and frost all those pastries), the movie wants us to stay transfixed by the fact that there will be no physical contact whatsoever between its starstruck lovers.
It's like a gangster movie where everybody breaks out the tommy guns and loads up, but nobody gets shot.
I really enjoyed the lead performances by Judi Dench, who plays Queen Victoria, and Billy Connolly, who portrays her servant. But there just isn't a whole lot happening.
After Prince Albert dies in 1861, Queen Victoria is inconsolable. The early part of the film is almost darkly amusing, as the servants in the palace try to maintain a state of mourning long after the prince is dead. The queen can't seem to shake her post-funeral funk, choosing instead to ignore her stately duties and go into seclusion.
Brown rides to the rescue
Public sentiment is beginning to rise against her when, in an act of desperation, Albert's beloved servant, Brown, is summoned to take care of the queen's horses. It's also hoped that he will be a reminder of her life with the prince, and thus help her regain her composure and take up her duties.
Connolly, the great Scottish comic, would seem to be a bizarre casting choice as Brown, but that's only if you think (as I did) that he's going to play the whole role straight. A great deal of the movie consists of Connolly giving the royal court the sort of hosing down that he usually reserves for his various stand-up targets.
I don't mean to imply that he's doing Monty Python riffs, but the character's absolute disregard for stuffy customs is perfect fodder for Connolly's almost musically delivered verbal daggers.
Brown insists on breaking with protocol and sitting exactly where he wants to sit at the servants' table, openly drinks like a fish, ignores orders from his superiors and often refers to Her Royal Highness as "woman" -- as in "Good God, woman, look at ya!" It's never fully explained how he manages to get away with all of this.
There's even a moment when he vehemently tells the Prince of Wales where to get off. Early in the movie, Connolly doesn't do much that you haven't seen him do before, except wear a kilt and take care of Queen Victoria's horse.
Queen thaws, a little
I'm not an expert on the royals, but even I knew that there wasn't going to be a "Wuthering Heights" clinch between the Queen of England and a foul-mouthed, drunken stablehand.
She does manage, however, to finally take a few deep breaths and come out of her shell to some degree. I know this is all historically accurate (or as accurate as we can be with the information available), but the hemmed-in passions don't really hold up in a film that, for all practical purposes, is a romance. I mean, the queen is so uptight, at one point she actually goes swimming while wearing a hat!
The closest any of this ever comes to boiling over is when John and Victoria exchange discreet hand kisses. There is very little emotional wallop involved, because the royals (as we are all aware by now) have not always been the emotionally walloping type. Just when you start hoping against hope that it's time for a blast-off, the mission gets scrubbed.
All of this is nicely directed by John Madden, who, amazingly enough, does not draw little x's and o's all over the screen to show you how the play will be developing. (Whoops! Wrong John Madden).
There are similarities to Britain's royal family
I want to applaud Madden's restraint in not lingering photographically on the ornate palace walls and fancy silverware.
This is one of the few films I can recall that shows the opulence of the royal lifestyle without wallowing in it as if we're about to be given a test on 19th century interior decorating. It just so happens that the queen has a lot of servants and really nice digs.
Madden obviously has decided that that sort of thing should play a secondary role to the other story, but, to a large degree, there is no other story -- or, at least there isn't the other story that Madden probably intended.
The parallels between this court and the one that has so recently (and so tragically) been in the news are impossible to ignore.
Brown's zest for life is viewed as something that could sully the reputation of the monarchy; at one point, there is a call for the "disestablishment" of that same monarchy, and there's even a scene where some pesky newspaper reporters are spying on the queen during a personal moment. Conjecture about the relationship between the queen and Brown is also splayed across the front pages of the dailies.
The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. And that's a real pity.
"Mrs. Brown" is sometimes a lot lighter than you might expect. The fine performances easily make it worth your trouble in this, The Year of No Great Movies. Some brief nudity (Brown and his brother go skinny-dipping). Rated PG. 105 minutes.
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