Pani Henderson

English lords vs. female nudity. Who’ll come out on top? Even by Stephen Frears’s standards, this is a very unentertaining film. Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, each different, both unlikable and drawn to each other only at the instigation of the screenwriter. The narrative, as desolate as a field after a battle, is enriched with a romantic mini-interlude at one point around two-thirds of the way through the film for reasons that are impossible to comprehend. Perhaps so that there is at least some emotion and tears can fall. This affected and not very funny ode to “the other woman” and a lot of other factors favoured by society is the most suddenly watchable at its theatrical and least cinematic moments. If Frears had staged the rest of the film with the same degree of inventiveness, I would have spent less time hesitating over whether to give Mrs. Henderson Presents three stars. 55% (17.06.2011)

A period comedy-drama done just the way the Brits do best. It’s tasteful, occasionally crude, sometimes funny, and a bit dull in parts. Judi Dench, as always, delivers a solid performance. (07.06.2023)

Members of the wealthy elite often feel the need to show their human face and gain the sympathy of those below them. Both the screenwriter and director try their best, but I cannot shake the intense feeling that I am watching a stubborn and arrogant lady who is capable of driving her Indian servant to desperation and trampling on her surroundings with the same passion with which she seized the opportunity to save the theater scene. I did not find a way to connect with the character portrayed by Judi Dench, and it was only slightly better with Bob Hoskins. Furthermore, the combination of patriotism and a brothel selling erotica does not seem all that kosher to me, and where the creators feel they have captured the strongest patriotic moment, I feel unsettled. Considering the environment in which the story takes place and the names the director has at his disposal, I see untapped potential. Overall impression: 55%. (02.12.2019)

In Mrs. Henderson Presents, we get successful period piece by Stephen Frears about the glory years of the Windmill Theater, the famous nude revue theater that had a fascinating era in the 1930s and remained open during the wartime bombing of London. I am not surprised that it eventually became a musical piece, because the style of London follies is simply attractive. (12.12.2020)

A superbly filmed and performed masterclass by Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. The characters other than the energetic, stubborn lady and the resolute impresario hardly matter, everything revolves around them, they are the two islands of security in war-torn London. And that’s not bad, at all. (23.08.2015)