Victoria & Abdul

A charming but rather disingenuous take on this subject of history. The leads were rather likable but overly one-dimensional, unfortunate as the film does touch upon some more nuanced ideas of these characters that it never follows on. The portrayal of Victoria being a progressive is rather absurd, especially when she uses "racist" as an insult. Abdul was also too saint-like, never doing anything petty or immoral and being more of an outlet than a character.

A charming Sunday matinee film elevated to something special by Dench's sublime, effortlessly commanding return to Queen Victoria, matched by Fazal's charming performance as Abdul. While it teeters on shaky historical ground, and the court intrigues are so overwrought to be laughable at times, the film works as a simplistic fairy tale, with luscious cinematography and costume design, and Frears' steady hand behind the camera.

Rote and broad. The leads give engaging performances that are swallowed up by the mugging of the supporting cast.

Charming and warm, but also a bit rushed and inaccurate. Great performances in the lead.

Victoria & Abdul commits the cinematic crime of over-playing the "based on true events" card, especially with embellishments on a still sensitive topic today. Victoria's role is sanitised as Abdul plays the faithful servant, and their plot plods along at a decent pace without saying anything of consequence. Luckily, past the pretty sets, the film also offers a take on institutionalised racism that is decent, if a bit heavy-handed. Dench is good. Izzard and Akhtar were much more interesting.

Video review: https://youtu.be/L_II7GaJMBg

eng; [victoria and abdul]; die geschichte einer tiefen freundschaftlichen liebe zwischen der königin und indischem landsmann.;

Pleasant but thoroughly unremarkable. Hits every beat you'd expect with no real surprises. I wasn't thrilled with the portrayal of Abdul, who kind of fades away as a character with any sort of agency while the supporting cast pops their monocles over him for a good half of the film. Dench is fine, obviously.

Slightly dull given its cast. A Judi Dench swansong?

Well acted and interesting historically but ultimately it didn't engage me as much as I hoped it would... it is hard to make movies based heavily on real events match pure fiction when you want a happier ending!

An enjoyable view into the relationship of the queen of England and her Indian servant. Interesting and sometimes amusing story about a truly unique relationship. Worth watching, but not without its negatives. Judi Dench was marvelous as was Ali Fazal as her Indian teacher. Worth watching. Incredible sets, settings and costumes. Excellent music and filmography as well.

Charming but not very convincing. As I was watching it, I kept thinking "really now" every other scene and when I was done, I looked it up on Wikipedia and it was, indeed, not the way things went down. Dame Dench is of course wonderful as the old queen, ailing and lonely and listening to her epic rant is worth the whole movie, but everything else just seemed slightly off.

A perfectly fine (and a little too dull) fairy tale inspired by a true story.