It wasn't very good. Major, major disappointment despite the great cast, director, and set design. I'm honestly not sure where they went wrong, but they definitely went wrong.

I kind of liked it. Obviously the first thing that crossed my mind is Dench is not really Oscar worthy here, she's not bad, but just thinking at Kichler or Watts not being nominated over this performance is a little bit disgusting.

But the film is playful and Dench is a little cast against type here as a wacky 70ish year old widow who buys a theater because she gets bored after her husband dies. The story relating to her goals and her ambitions based on her dead son is a little touching and she plays of Hoskins well (even if he can't support the film without her) in fact, she kind of disappears a little towards the end. But the story doesn't really evolve and the relationships stay pretty much the same throughout the film. When the World War II stuff creeps in there is a layer of familiarity with it and, although I haven't seen anything quite like this it still has that air of "been there, done that".

The editing is a little frantic which is a problem because the 2nd half slows down pretty rapidly. The visual look of the film is pretty flat too.

The CG that's used is pretty obvious and kind of rubs against the "Englishness" of this film in a way. And the support characters beyond Hoskins and Thelma Barlow don't really do anything for me. Christopher Guest comes across a little too much like The Duke from Moulin Rouge in a way.

But other than that, there are lots and lots and lots and lots of boobies.

Indeed. The whole thing looks kind of colorless and ultimately a little bit like an enclosed stage production itself. But meh, maybe that's what they were going for.

But I, too, enjoyed it and actually laughed quite a bit. The script, while nothing fantastic, is quite clever at times, as is Dench's take on the snippy, little-old-lady ("Isn't that delicious!"). Probably not deserving of a nomination but otherwise good. I'm not sure if I bought her character's flaw of "living in her own world," though (which about three characters point out at once). Seemed a little forced.

But it is pretty charming, so B+.

Yeah, I thought it was funny when the producer came up and she was like...

H: "Do you find any of these girls beautiful"...
P: "Some of them are very pretty"
H: "But none you would find beautiful?"
P: "Ma'am, I have... other inclinations"
H: "Ooooh? ... OOOOOH! How delicious!"

I thought it was going strong, and pretty cute, up until Henderson gets up on that stand and totally botches the big speech. It went downhill quickly. Would have been a B up through that point. Dropped to a B-. They botched the kind of emotional resonance aspect that was supposed to tie all the fun together.

Just saw this on DVD. I had a lot of fun, but near the end, I just kept thinking "And where exactly is this going?" The film kind of rambles, doesn't it? It's more of a character study than a story, I guess. And I agree with Dolce about the emotional impact.

I love that!!!

Too bad I can't say the same for the entire movie.

This movie was hard to take, although Judi Dench does do a good job with the material. I actually thought Bob Hoskins was better than she was...too bad he didn't receive more recognition.

C/C+