Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Reviewed by: Tami Smith, Film Reviewer for Shockya
Grade: C+
Director: Mandie Fletcher
Written by: Jennifer Saunders
Cast: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness, Jane Jorrocks, June Whitfield
Release Date: July 22, 2016
Absolutely Fabulous (a.k.a.: Ab Fab) was a BBC television sitcom, which first aired in the U.K. on November 1992 and continued till May 1995. The program featured Edina Monsoon, a PR agent, trying to stay young and her best friend Patsy Stone, a magazine editor and alcohol abuser. The program was so successful that it returned for special episodes on December 2011, January and July 2012.
As if this were not enough now we have an encore: Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, which takes us twenty-four years into the present. Eddy Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) are still living the high life in West London, shopping, drinking and partying, while “trying” to do PR work and magazine editing in their spare time. A tragedy strikes at a “working party” where Eddy expects to get a new client: supermodel Kate Moss (Herself), who falls from a balcony into the Thames River. Being accused of murder is not to be taken lightly in the U.K., so Eddy and Patsy escape to the French Riviera while continuing their adventures in pursuit of money.
What started as a screw ball mystery comedy becomes a dated cross-dressing-fashion-party with twenty-nine cameo appearances including: Jon Hamm, Joan Collins and Kate Moss.
Jennifer Saunders as Eddy Monsoon and Joanna Lumley as Patsy Stone are an energetic team that keeps this stale plot moving along, while director Mandie Fletcher supervises over a large cast of trans-genders and cross dressers.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is not great cinema but with sharp lensing by Chris Goodger in London and Nice; costume design by Rebecca Hale; and hair and make-up by Christine Cant it will keep British viewers entertained, while providing a poor substitute for the “real-thing” to their American neighbors across the pond.
For your spare time viewing may I recommend: Tootsie (1982) with Dustin Hoffman (an unemployed American actor auditions for an acting job on television, while impersonating a middle-aged woman) and The Birdcage (1996) with Gene Hackman (a recreation of Broadway’s La Cage aux Folles).
Unrated. 86 minutes. © Tami Smith, Film Reviewer
Story: C+
Acting: B
Technical: B
Overall: C+