Sunday, December 11, 2005

"Keeping Mum" - film review

Starring Rowan Atkinson, Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas this is a 15 rated English black comedy - indeed right up to the very last scene!

A reviewer and her companion found great hilarity with the silver screen depiction of Atkinson playing a Man of the Cloth totally oblivious in his "other worldliness" to the antics of a nymphomaniac daughter living right under his roof - and of other similar dangers as well.

It may perhaps be the fact that it is a silver screen depiction which has permitted some to find such scenes humourous. I myself could only bear them with a great sense of sadness (and mourning even) knowing that such or similar failings may be all too close to the truth and perhaps prevalent in the moral climate in which we live.

Nevertheless, in the midst of all this, a mysterious housekeeper played by Maggie Smith joins the dysfunctional country vicarage and her name -"Grace" - turns out to be a double-entendre of a more edifying sort than the ones the philandering golf pro played by Patrick Swayze dishes out with almost every word he utters.

You may, if you are a Christian, actually find the sermon delivered by Rowan Atkinson's character on "God's mysterious ways" (his text :Isaiah 55v8) profound and even edifying to your soul.

So is this a Christian film then ? Well, this film did manage to draw me in. Strike that. It actually did grab me by the scruff of the neck and made me think in sober ways about Christian Ministry in a very relevent manner at both a general and sociological level as well as at a very personal level. There are not that many films "Christian" or otherwise that can do that, i should think. But, of course, that may just be accidental and not something the producers or writers intended.

It was the big names that drew my wife and i to see this film. I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of 18 or to folk who are easily shocked or offended as it treats spiritual and sexual issues in a frank manner but with a sensitivity and an ethical sense which is uncommon fare at the cinema these days.

2 comments:

rach said...

I had no idea you were a blogger too Celal!! Nice to see you!

Great review of the film too - I do agree with you. I think I'd have to say that there were two sides to my response to the film. I did find it very funny, as you know. But also, as you said, there is a great amount of sadness in the situations involved in the film:

- the struggling vicar
- the strained marriage
- the daughter's many partners and sexual exploits

etc. etc. etc.

I think its important for us, as Christians, to be able to laugh at ourselves and us as a culture. It prevents us from taking ourselves to seriously and allows us to take a step back and see things from the outside to some extent. But maybe we should also be challenged by such films, these issues are all too real and are very definitely going on under our own roof, if not physically then certainly metaphorically.

Celal Birader said...

Hello Rach !!

Thank you for your comments.

I thought i had a book inside me but it was just a blog !

Keep in touch.

God bless,
Celal