Thu 10 Oct 2019
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: KEEPING MUM (2005).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[8] Comments
KEEPING MUM. Isle of Man Film – Azure Films – Tusk Productions / Entertainment Film Distributors, UK, 2005. Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Patrick Swayze, Tamsin Egerton, Toby Parkes, Liz Smith. Screenplay: Richard Russo & Niall Johnson, based on a story by the former. Director: Niall Johnson.
A couple of months ago I saw a French film from 2000, With a Friend Like Harry, about a psycho who insinuates himself into a family. then “helps them” by killing anyone he perceives as their enemies. Imagine my surprise to find the same plot played for laughs — and played quite well — in Keeping Mum, which I recommend if you ever think back to those old Ealing comedies like Lady Killers and Kind Hearts and Coronets where murder was done with such quiet panache as to seen amusing and even tasteful.
Mum centers around Kristine Scott-Thomas as the beleaguered wife of bemused country ,minister Rowen Atkinson, mother of a libidinous teenage daughter and a bullied son, and sex-object of sleazy lothario Patrick Swayze. Into her chaotic life housekeeper Maggie Smith descends like a lethal Mary Poppins with a perfectly simple philosophy for happiness: kill anyone who gets on your nerves.
Writer-director Niall Johnson handles this thing with the necessary light touch — he recycles the cell-phone gag from With a Friend Like Harry to highly amusing effect — and the players are competent and sometimes inspired. Scott-Thomas as the wide-eyed adulteress reminded me touchingly at times of Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter. Give this one a look if you enjoy the gentle irony of British Humour at its best.
October 10th, 2019 at 7:32 pm
Dan, you had me at Maggie Smith as a lethal housekeeper.
October 10th, 2019 at 7:45 pm
My commitment to not buying new DVDs this year is sorely tested by this one.
October 11th, 2019 at 6:51 am
Wow, somehow I never heard of it. You can’t go completely wrong with Maggie Smith in it.
October 11th, 2019 at 7:19 am
To tell you the truth, I don’t remember ever hearing of this one, either. I wonder what kind of theatrical run it had in this country,
October 11th, 2019 at 10:54 am
Steve: Welcome once again to The 21st Century.
It was at (or at least near) the Turn of the current Century that patterns in feature film releasing and booking went through a major sea change.
Put simply, The Bigger The Movie, The Bigger The Bookings.
Explosions, MMA-style fighting, CGI-scapes, epics upon super-epics – these are what get 10 of the fifteen screens in the downtown plexes , and this is where the entertainment press gets those opening-weekend grosses that absolutely determine the heat.
Movies like this one – “little films”, they get called these days – maybe they get a week or two in NY, and a week or two in LA, and maybe a week in Chicago (at least when Roger Ebert was still around), but other than that …
If you’re really lucky, you swing a deal for some cable exposure, or a DVD release (both, if possible), and that’s how you get the movie seen – if you’re really lucky.
This posting is the first time I’ve ever heard of Keeping Mum; to the best of my knowledge, it never got a theatrical booking in Chicago (correction welcomed, if needed).
Every day, as I scan the cable listings, I always run across movies that I’ve never heard of – frequently with name stars whom you’d think might have got some rear ends in the seats (even at the current prices) – but they mainly seem to fall through bigger and bigger cracks.
I have no explanation for any of this, beyond simple evolution – it’s just The Way Things Are These Days.
So keep your eyes – and your options – wide open.
October 11th, 2019 at 7:46 pm
Tis a new world out there, Mike, that’s for sure.
October 12th, 2019 at 10:36 am
It was a British film released while one of the Harry Potter films was out. It appeared in America and the critics liked the cast but was unimpressed with the film.
Here is the box office information.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=keepingmum.htm
October 12th, 2019 at 11:32 am
A new site for me, Michael. Thanks!
Here are some numbers: US theaters: 79. US Gross $1.8M. Worldwide Gross: $16.9M