Victoria & Abdul Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it was directed by Stephen Frears, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, even though I thought it would be something terribly corny, I have to admit that it was not so bad after all. I mean, I still didn’t care much for this story and I believe it was still too light but these 2 characters turned out to be fairly entertaining after all. Above all, Judi Dench was a perfect choice to play this part and she delivered another really solid performance. Ali Fazal was not bad either but his character did lack some depth, I’m afraid. I mean, Abdul Karim, as displayed in this movie, seemed to be a terribly kind and smart man but why would a Muslim man from India be so fond of the Queen of England? In fact, why would any man be so fond of her for that matter? Only out of sheer loyalty? In fact, both characters seemed to talk about anything, except politics. I mean, if the Queen wished she wasn’t hated by so many people around the world, why did the British empire expand so much during her rule? Even if you put the politics aside, pretty much the whole movie was about her household being appalled by the fact that she basically only wanted to spend her time left with a nice and handsome low class Indian man. Still, it was quite intriguing to see the Queen being open to such foreign, even exotic, influence during the twilight years of her life. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was actually a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Frears at his lightest. The monarch and simple man friendship is a genre on its own. Here, Dench is ok as Victoria, and Abdul's character is ok, but they both are so well motivated, mmmhhhh, too naif and goodhearted