Quaintly Dark Keeping Mum Something To Talk About

3 Popcorn Kernels

British cinema often features a character in the role of the nanny or housekeeper. This character is usually the catalyst of change in the other characters’ lives. In Nanny McPhee, the nanny helps the man of the house find his one true love and assists the children with the acquisition of decent behavioral skills. In Keeping Mum, the housekeeper helps the woman of the house rekindle her romance with her husband and assists the children with the achievement of confidence and self importance. Those are two fairly similar plots, right?

Yes – except Nanny McPhee was able to pull it all off without killing anybody.

Keeping Mum begins with a short prologue about a pretty young woman named Rosie Jones. While riding on a train, it is discovered that Rosie has a trunk filled with two dead bodies. Rosie contently confesses that the bodies are that of her husband and his mistress, noting that she “couldn’t very well stand idly by.” She is locked away in a secure unit for the criminally insane.

Forty-three years later, we are introduced to Gloria Goodfellow, a woman played by Kristin Scott Thomas who appears bitter and mean. Gloria’s marriage to her husband Reverend Walter Goodfellow, played by Rowan Atkinson, has grown stale so she is seeing her golf instructor Lance, played by Patrick Swayze, and is planning on running away with him to Mexico. Walter is too consumed with writing a winning keynote speech to notice his wife’s infidelity. Meanwhile, their son Petey is terrorized by bullies on a daily basis, which is exactly how long it takes his sister Holly to change boyfriends.

Everything begins to turn around, though, when housekeeper Grace Hawkins, played by Maggie Smith, comes into their lives with a mysterious trunk. Utilizing particularly unconventional ways she teaches Petey the art of self-assurance, Holly the value of making the right choices and Walter the practice of humor. The only task remaining is getting Gloria interested in her husband again – something seemingly impossible with Lance standing in her way.

Each of the characters in Keeping Mum appears to be stock at first glance but a few twists bring out the dark side of the personalities. Atkinson is always a joy to watch and his unique knack for facial expressions is not wasted here. Smith is absolutely superb in this flick, as well, embodying the perfect balance of kindness and malice to make Grace constantly intriguing. The British nanny / housekeeper genre has been due for an update for quite some time and Grace Hawkins is exactly the woman for the job.

Unfortunately, after the initial prologue involving Rosie Jones, the scenes introducing the Goodfellow family are comparatively dull and it takes a while before the fun picks back up when Grace finally appears. In addition, Petey’s story is cut short midway through the flick and Holly’s dilemma never really takes corporeal form. These two storylines could have substituted Gloria’s frequently boring moments to keep the flick afloat.

Still, the vast majority of the motion picture is entertaining. For a dark comedy, Keeping Mum is unusually pleasant. The black humor in this particular movie is more apt at generating smiles than hearty laughs, but such subtlety adds to the film’s quaint structure. With a memorable story, delightful characters and an eerie spin, Keeping Mum is definitely something to talk about.