MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS

The thing about the amazing Dame Judi Dench is that she will probably get an Oscar nomination for a film where she phones in her performance—she is that good, even when she is not challenged, as in Mrs. Henderson Presents.

In this loosely-based-on-a-true-story tale, Dench plays Laura Henderson, a recently widowed upper class lady who is simply too saucy and restless to sit around knitting with other old biddies. It is 1930s London, and things are picking up in town, so she decides to buy a decrepit old theater named the Windmill. As the theater scene is very competitive, she hires savvy theater director Vivian Van Damm (sharp-tongued Bob Hoskins) to come up with a clever idea to trump the competition.

After a few failed ventures, it is Laura herself who proposes the shocking idea of a girlie show, featuring naked British ladies... a sort of 24-hour "revuedeville" (part revue and part vaudeville). Of course it is terribly illegal to have naked girls dance around like the French (gasp!), but Laura bullies Lord Cromer (the quite funny and uptight Christopher Guest), and gets him to allow naked girls—as long as they don't move (like paintings in a museum, you see?). Very British and proper!

The creation of the revue is quite snappy and fun, and the film really comes to life during the musical numbers, many of them sung charmingly by the UK's own Pop Idol winner Will Young. You'll find yourself tapping your foot along to tunes like the immensely catchy "Goody Goody" and "Babies of the Blitz". These musical points are the highlight of the film, and are really wonderful.

The film, however, slowly starts to tumble into melodrama as the UK gets pulled into the war, and the London Blitz begins. Henderson and Van Damm struggle to keep the theater open, despite the ever-glowing fire in the city's night sky (featured in a stunning rooftop scene). It's for the troops, they proclaim, when the theater is threatened with closure. The film stumbles along with a somber tone as a character conveniently dies after revealing a socially unacceptable truth about herself. It is as though the director suddenly felt he needed to infuse his movie with deeper meaning than simply boobs and songs.

Mrs. Henderson Presents is rather lightweight entertainment with good music and a bit of history thrown in to boot. Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins give playful performances, and enjoy a witty banter throughout, but this movie is not Oscar caliber in my opinion. Dench and Hoskins are the only characters who really get any background, and not even much of a background at that. For the most part, the rest of the cast is pleasant and interchangeable—what should be tear-jerking moments just never honestly gel, since we don't really care. But you can still enjoy Mrs. Henderson Presents for what it is, a frothy escapist movie—then just run out and buy the soundtrack!