A Hobby and A Half! (Mrs Henderson Presents (DVD))

Member Name: sewbizzie

Product:	Mrs Henderson Presents (DVD)
Date:	19/01/09 (185 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story, good acting,

Disadvantages: Bob Hoskins Naked!

Mrs Henderson Presents is a film which was my choice as I like Judy Dench. I had heard quite a lot about how good the film was so when I saw it for a bargain price I snapped it up.

Judy Dench stars as Mrs Henderson who has recently lost her husband as is finding life is getting boring. Her best friend tells her that she needs to find a hobby. Everyone is shocked when Mrs Henderson takes this to the extreme and buys the Windmill Theatre!

As she has no experience of the theatre and how it works she seeks a manager, She finds a very interesting man, Vivian Van Damm, played by Bob Hoskins who agrees to manage the theatre as long as he is given total control. Vivian starts auditions for the show and it is here we are introduced to Will Young who is to play the leading role.

The show finally opens and is a massive success but then things start to go down hill as the other theatres have started putting on similar shows so Mrs Henderson and Vivian have to come up with a new idea for a unique show. Mrs Henderson comes up with the idea of Nude theatre but as Vivian tells her she will never get a licence to be able to do this.

Will Mrs Henderson get her licence for the nude show and what will happen to the theatre once the war starts? Will Vivian and Mrs Henderson ever be able to get on and stop all the bickering?????

I really did enjoy this film from the very start to the end. The story line was based on true events which added to the whole experience. I though Judy Dench gave a wonderful performance in the role of Mrs Henderson and she seemed to add a lot of humour to her part. Bob Hoskins also made his character very interesting and worked very well 9on screen with Judy. They seemed to be able to work off each other very well. I thought their on screen relationship, Vivian and Mrs Henderson was very funny and I loved the way they had their love hate relationship and the bickering and arguments made great viewing!

Will Young surprised me in his role as I believe this was has acting debut. He seemed very relaxed in his role and he was very realistic. I enjoyed listening to him sing when he was playing the leading man on stage. The girls which were the stars of the show all played their parts well and they added a bit of depth to the film as it was not just centred around the two main characters.

The scenery and clothes which were used and worn were very authentic and the scenes from the war were all great and I really did get the impression and feeling that we were based in 1939 when the war had just started. I think that the production team really did work very hard to make it look as authentic and real as it did.

One part in the film which did make me cringe was when the entire cast got naked. Me and my hubby both cringed when we got to see a full frontal of Bob Hoskins! The men may enjoy seeing the naked ladies. The nudity is done very tastefully and it is very rare that we get to see an entire naked lady.

The DVD which I have does not have any bonus features.

The film was produced in 2004 by 20th Century Fox. It was produced by Norma Heyman with the Executive Producer being Bob Hoskins. The film was Directed by Stephen Frears.

The film has been given a certificate of 12 as there is one used of strong language, I did actually notice 2 swear words, not that I was counting! And there is moderate sex references. I would say that a mature 12 year old would be OK watching this film but personally I would have given it a 15 certificate as there are plenty of breasts to be seen.

The film has a running time of 98 minutes which is a great length as I did not find the film was dragging or getting boring in any places. I managed to pick my copy up from EBay for the bargain price of 99p!

I do recommend this film as it was very entertaining but only if you have the stomach for seeing Bob Hoskins naked!

Summary: Mrs Henderson plans a new and raunchy theatre show!