ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

Dame Judi Dench is one of the few performers who really deserve the title national treasure. She has won every possible award from an Oscar to a BAFTA, and her performance in ‘Mrs Brown’ finally allowed her to make the leap from theatrical giant to genuine film star.

Dench is on sparkling form in ‘Mrs Henderson Presents’, and it would be no surprise if she received another collection of glittering prizes.

A spry mixture of social history and personal drama, ‘Mrs Henderson Presents’ tells the tale of London’s Windmill Theatre through the relationship between merry widow Laura Henderson and the theatre’s manager, Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins).

The Windmill was famous for never closing during the dark days of the war and for staging the kind of sensitive artistic tableaux that allowed them to thwart the censors and put naked women on a West End stage.

Mrs Henderson was the irrepressible woman who bought the theatre, decided that the girls should appear naked, and even persuaded her good friend the Lord Chamberlain (Christopher Guest) that it was all in the best possible taste.

Screenwriter Martin Sherman has transformed a loose string of events into a very witty and unexpectedly moving stroll down memory lane. When London is attacked by Nazi bombers there is a real contemporary resonance in the age old belief that the show must go on.

Director Stephen Frears ensures that this is a film with a spring in its step, and also secures excellent performances from Kelly Reilly and pop star Will Young as gay juvenile lead Bertie. Regardless of the fine work by everyone involved, this is still Judi Dench’s film, and her triumphant performance makes ‘Mrs Henderson Presents’ a pure delight.

General release, cinemas nationwide
Director: Stephen Frears
Stars: Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Christopher Guest, Kelly Reilly, Will Young
Screenplay: Martin Sherman
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 102 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2005

© Allan Hunter, 2005