The Duke
Jim Broadbent excels as a genial, real-life outlaw in Roger Michell’s penultimate film, a swan song to be proud of.
The release of this film having been delayed by Covid, it reaches us after the death of its director Roger Michell whose professionalism is everywhere apparent in it. Based on a real life incident, the 1961 theft from London's National Gallery of Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington, this could hardly be called an ambitious work. However, creating truly effective entertainment out of material that belongs to that difficult hybrid, the comedy-drama, is far from easy. And it’s here that Michell’s sure hand came into play as he balances the elements present in the screenplay by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman.
The first half of The Duke emphasises the comic aspects of the story, the mood both here and elsewhere aided by George Fenton’s music score. Very much screen centre is 60-year-old taxi driver Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent.) His home is in Newcastle where this left-wing working class man lives with his wife, Dorothy (Helen Mirren), and their younger son, Jackie (Fionn Whitehead). The older son, Henry (Jack Bandeira), is living away from home, someone not above minor criminal activities. Jackie, though, is altogether more reliable even if his mother is put out by his willingness to support his father in what she regards as his wilder ideas. One of these is to campaign for free TV for the elderly. In connection with that Kempton prevents his set from receiving BBC channels and claims that in consequence he is justified in refusing to pay for a TV licence. The authorities disagree and Kempton ends up with a prison sentence (13 days). You might well assume that he would go no further than that in breaking the law but then, following the news of the Goya theft, we see that the painting is hidden away in a wardrobe in the Buntons’ spare room. This starts to make sense when, far from turning the theft to his personal advantage, Kempton makes a conditional offer to return the painting: his demand for that is £140,000, but the payment is to be applied so as to ensure that pursuant to his campaign nobody is without television.
The idea that a man like Kempton could be a thief regarded by Scotland Yard as a master international criminal underlines the extent to which The Duke contains echoes of the classic Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob. With the initial tone being relatively light (but not to the extent of undermining the film’s awareness of social and class issues), a slight miscalculation does seem to occur - that is when comparatively early on the film reveals the fact that the Buntons are still coping with not having come to terms with the loss of their daughter who years earlier had been killed when riding her bicycle. However, this aspect of the story is leading to a second half which, without ever fully losing the comic touch, moves increasingly towards drama. That includes a climax in which Kempton Bunton is seen being prosecuted in the Old Bailey where he is represented by Jeremy Hutchinson QC (Matthew Goode).
Judged as popular cinema, The Duke is undoubtedly a success. The period sense is good, snatches of popular songs of the period feature pleasingly on the soundtrack and the editing by Kristina Hetherington is very neat indeed, including occasions when Michell makes lively use of a split screen. There are very good contributions from supporting players (most notably Whitehead and Goode) and the stars never put a foot wrong. The film as written belongs to Broadbent who is on his very best form, but it would be wrong to undervalue Mirren: her role may be close to being a supporting one but she succeeds totally in creating a believable ordinary housewife. In doing this so unselfishly she adds immeasurably to the effectiveness of the film for this is a work in which the comedy is all the more telling for eschewing exaggeration. Furthermore, by avoiding any mockery of its characters, the film ensures that we feel warmly for both Kempton and Dorothy. The laughter is there but never at their expense.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin, Matthew Goode, John Heffernan, Michael Hodgson, Richard McCabe, Andrew Havill, James Wilby, Jack Bandeira, Ashley Kumar, Aimée Kelly, Charlotte Spencer, Charles Edwards, Sian Clifford, Heather Craney, Joshua McGuire, Sam Swainsbury.
Dir Roger Michell, Pro Nicky Bentham, Screenplay Richard Bean and Clive Coleman, Ph Mike Eley, Pro Des Kristian Milsted, Ed Kristina Hetherington, Music George Fenton, Costumes Dinah Collin, Dialect coaches Jill McCullough and Helen Jane Simmons.
Pathé UK/Ingenious Media/Screen Yorkshire/Neon Films-Pathé UK.
96 mins. UK. 2020. UK Rel: 25 February 2022. US Rel: 25 March 2022. Cert. 12A.