Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Keeping Mum (2004)

Director: Niall Johnson

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

A would-be black comedy in a rural British setting, this sees vicar Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson, of course) employing a housekeeper, Grace (Maggie Smith), who just happens to be a released murderer. Equally unimaginative casting comes in the form of Kristin Scott Thomas as a foul-mouthed, frustrated wife and Patrick Swayze as a pervy American golf pro who gets the village ladies in a spin. Grace sets about solving the Rev Goodfellow’s family problems in her own unique style while the family engage in farcical sitcom banter (sometimes funny, sometimes not). It’s like dumping a serial killer into a very, very long episode of ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ and expecting it to work: there’s no artful black comedy here, just an uncomfortable clash between broad provincial humour and a murder plotline. The central cast are up to the job: Smith deadpans delightfully when she can, and Atkinson upgrades his bumbling ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ performance to mildly amusing effect. But despite its genial characters, ‘Keeping Mum’ is an undisciplined, ultimately unsuccessful experiment in British black comedy.

Author: AS 2005-11-28 16:36:53

Time Out London Issue 1841: November 30-December 7 2005

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Niall Johnson

Producer: Julia Palau, Matthew Payne

Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Patrick Swayze, Emilia Fox, Liz Smith, Tamsin Egerton, James Booth, Toby Parkes, Jack Ryan full cast

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 103 mins

Related articles


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.