Victoria & Abdul

In the opening moments of Victoria & Abdul, we see the words "Based on real events - mostly".  This is more or less director Stephen Frears' effort to let us know right off the bat that what we are about to watch is a sentimentalized and somewhat whimsical look at a true story.  It's a smart move, as it gets the audience ready for what is to come.  I'm sure that historical fans will nitpick the details of the movie to death, and yes, some of it can be quite broad and heavy handed.  But I also found it completely charming, and it works on a level of escapism.

It certainly helps that Frears has found the right actors to tell the story, or at least his version of it.  Judi Dench has played Queen Victoria previously in 1997's Mrs. Brown.  Returning to the role 20 years later to play a much older version of Victoria fits her perfectly, and is probably one of the smarter casting choices in recent years.  In a lot of ways, this film could almost be seen as a sequel to the earlier one. (I'll explain why soon.) As for Abdul, we have charming Hollywood newcomer Ali Fazal.  As the two begin a respectful friendship and eventual platonic love with one another, we believe every emotion.  Fazal shows a certain openness and sweetness that we can truly believe that an aging monarch would find endearing.  He was there when she needed human friendship and kindness, and the film portrays their growing relationship beautifully.

At the start, Abdul is a clerk at a jail in Agra, writing names down in a book.  He is picked by some British government officials to deliver a gold trinket to the Queen, simply because they were asked to bring back a tall Indian man to serve as its deliverer, and Abdul just happens to be tall enough.  He travels from India to England with another man plucked from obscurity named Mohammed (Adeel Akhtar).  After months at sea, they find themselves in Buckingham Palace under strict orders over how to act in front of the Queen when they present the trinket to her during a grand palace dinner.  Abdul is not to make eye contact with her, but when he presents the gift to her, he cannot help but glance.  To the surprise of everyone in the room, Victoria seems smitten by the "terribly handsome" Indian man.

Dench plays Victoria as a woman who has long grown tired with the life she's led.  She falls asleep during the royal dinner, and cannot stand the constant scheming and whispered backtalk of her servants and family members.  She is also incredibly lonely, longing for her long-lost loves Prince Albert, and her manservant John Brown, of whom her relationship was depicted in the previously mentioned Mrs. Brown.  The affair that was depicted in that film was scandalous enough, but as the Queen nears the end of her life and now seems completely captivated by Abdul, it seems to turn almost the entire palace against her.  Nobody in the palace, especially her eldest son Bertie (Eddie Izzard) seems to care much that Abdul's presence seems to have made Victoria the happiest she has been in years.  They simply don't want the brown-skinned man to be amongst them, and seem threatened when the Queen starts taking advice from him, and even talks of Knighthood.

Victoria & Abdul moves at a brisk pace, but not so brisk that we do not buy Abdul's quick ascent in importance in the eyes of the Queen.  The movie is wise to focus on the central relationship between the two, as this is definitely the strongest aspect here.  Dench and Fazal share so much chemistry and warmth, I just loved watching them up on the screen together.  They are what won me over.  What the film was less successful at was handling the racial undertones of the picture, and how much of the palace staff and family scheme to get rid of Abdul.  These aspects come close to being a bit too simplistic in their depiction, and rather than really explore the topic or these characters, the filmmakers instead choose to make almost everyone who surround the two central characters buffoons.  There had to be a little more even-handed way to portray the outside characters and their reluctance to accept Abdul without making everybody into pompous and at times comical boobs.

This may sound like a criticism that could bring the whole movie down, but fortunately, the performances of the central characters constantly left me captivated.  I also never felt like the flaws took so much away that I was no longer enjoying the film.  I knew that my emotions were probably being manipulated every step of the way, but because the two leads are so effortlessly charming, I was able to go along with it.  I believe that a film such as this succeeds or fails on how you feel at the end of the journey the two central characters take.  For me, I was deeply moved by the film's final moments.  By that point, it was clear that I may not have believed everything the movie had been trying to sell me, but I still bought it.

I don't know if Victoria & Abdul will be remembered much come Award Time, but that should not matter.  This is a charming and sweet film that ultimately made me happy, and that's all it's really trying to do.  It's the kind of movie where you can lose yourself in its characters, and the relationship that builds between them.  It may not be an important film, but it's a joyful one.

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