The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
A funny-moving story enjoyably retold with classic British understatement and just the right twist at the end.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom · 2021
1h 36m
Director Roger Michell
Starring Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Matthew Goode, Aimee Kelly
Genre Drama
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In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60-year-old taxi driver, stole a Goya portrait from the National Gallery in London. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting only if the government agreed to provide television for free to the elderly. What happened next became the stuff of legends.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
A funny-moving story enjoyably retold with classic British understatement and just the right twist at the end.
Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan
Michell’s film is as defiantly traditional as the wallpaper which decorates the Bunton’s house.
The Duke is a romp first and foremost: Michell’s merry direction makes sure of that. But its stars put a small, dignified lump in its throat.
You could dine on nothing but lard for twenty years and still not develop the hardness of heart necessary to avoid being won over by Roger Michell‘s The Duke, a ridiculously charming British comedy that dunks a gamely accented prestige cast into an appealingly milky true story like so many digestives into a warm, well-earned, early evening cuppa.
If you suspect The Duke is on the cosy and nostalgic side of the cinematic spectrum, you might be right. But it’s such an expertly crafted and highly polished piece of warmhearted escapism that it’s difficult to resist.
What a lovely, rousing, finally moving film this is.
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