Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageThe Missionary (1981)
Director: Richard Loncraine
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Along with Local Hero, this marks a return to the kind of gentle comedy drama that has more in common with the old Ealing films than with the zaniness of Monty Python. A naive missionary returns from colonial Africa to be sent among the Fallen Women of Edwardian London. From them he learns that missionary has another meaning, which he embraces with the fervour of a man finding his true vocation. Affectionate treatment of English eccentrics - choleric general (Howard), aristocratic nympho (Smith), dotty butler (Hordern), keep-fit bishop (Elliott) - maintains interest between the rather meagrely distributed comic set pieces. But despite stylish direction, Palin's artless vicar is too familiar and too supine to carry a full-length film, a personal project in which he seems oddly self-effacing.Author: MB
Cast & crew
Director: Richard Loncraine
Producer: Neville C Thompson, Michael Palin
Cast: Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Trevor Howard, Denholm Elliott, Graham Crowden, David Suchet, Michael Hordern, Phoebe Nicholls, Roland Culver, Timothy Spall, Frances Barber full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 86 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Review: Penélope Cruz more raunchy than ever in 'Nine'
Dave Calhoun reports on Rob Marshall's Oscar-touted musical with Daniel Day-Lewis playing a troubled director
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Jim Jarmusch on 'The Limits of Control'
Jim Jarmusch has followed ‘Broken Flowers’ with an esoteric crime mystery. Dave Calhoun speaks to him from his New York office
Richard Linklater on 'Me and Orson Welles'
Dave Calhoun meets the 49-year-old, Houston-born filmmaker Richard Linklater to discuss his new comedy
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now