80
Rather dark, decidedly English and exceedingly well played, Keeping Mum is a neatly crafted black comedy with more than a nod in tone toward the Ealing classic "The Ladykillers."
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What are critics saying?
75
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
A giddy black comedy about a homicidal housekeeper in rural England, is a hilarious reminder of that 1944 Frank Capra classic about two old maids whose cellar is cluttered with the bodies of would-be suitors.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
She's no Mary Poppins: Maggie Smith is more like a cheery Angel of Death in the light black comedy Keeping Mum, one of those dutifully daft British diddles (complete with Rowan Atkinson as a vicar) that, except for the blunt sex talk, might have been constructed decades ago.
75
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Director and cowriter Niall Johnson's black comedy falters at the end, but until then it manages to wring gentle humor from murder most well bred.
40
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Obvious, simplistic, and never funny, Johnson's movie may be useful only as real estate porn--Cornwall and the Isle of Man never looked so super cute.
38
Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
Only the architecturally refined bone structure of Kristin Scott Thomas' face rescues Keeping Mum from full-on tedium.
58
Keeping Mum never really gets going, and it inches to the finish line like a narcoleptic turtle.
70
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
It’s refreshing to see Dame Maggie in a lighter mode than usual. The role of a genteel psychopath is a piece of lemon tea cake she consumes in one delicate bite.
75
Dame Maggie is simply delightful (has she ever been less than wonderful?).
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
The script (by Richard Russo) is solid, the performances are witty and fun, and the movie is a most agreeable way to spend an hour and a half.