Mrs Henderson Presents film review

certificate_12A

MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS

Soho was a different place in the 1930s: before the likes of Paul Raymond moved in and gave the district its seedy reputation, it had much more of a village feel to it where class didn't prevent everyone from enjoying themselves in the same locale. And before the era of the moving image, it was Soho's theatres that provided the focal point. Stephen Frears' excellent new film looks at the life of its most famous venue, the Windmill, and its most unlikely owner, Laura Henderson.

The story, which claims to be 'inspired by true events', has been covered in at least one other British film of the 1940s, and its good old-fashioned values, coupled with its titillating side, deserve a big audience. It portrays an England which only marginally reflects the value-centred society of today - a more honest and friendly place, but one inevitably pulled together by the threat of war.

Judi Dench's Laura Henderson is a kind but eccentric and very rich widow, bored after the recent death of her husband. Her friend Lady Conway (an excellent big screen debut from Thelma Barlow, better known as Mavis from Coronation Street) advises her on how to become a lady of leisure. Laura wants none of it: sewing, lunching and joining women's circles are not to be for her.

Instead she buys a theatre in the heart of Soho, hires a charismatic manager (Bob Hoskins) with whom she proceeds to have a love/hate relationship, and runs a successful business producing revues. But when the competition copies her and profits become losses, Mrs Henderson comes up with a revolutionary idea: nude revues.

There are plenty of laughs and numerous highlights along the way in this charming and well-staged affair: not least Hoskins and Dench who are excellent as the warring leading couple. There are also surprising and well-achieved cameos from Christopher Guest as the Lord Chamberlain and Will Young as Hoskins' camp singer and musical director. The comedy highlight for many may well be an unexpected nude scene involving the two of them.

Also noteworthy is the art direction, with Piccadilly Circus and the bomb-ravaged East End brought to glorious life by the design team, and the stage shows have a wonderfully authentic feel to them. The film certainly doesn't suffer from looking like it was made on a shoestring, and with Stephen Frears a director who has Oscar pedigree (he was nominated for The Grifters in 1991), Mrs Henderson Presents may well be a dark horse for this year's major awards.