Keeping Mum

Plot synopsis:
In the opening scene, as pregnant young Rosie Jones (Emilia Fox) rides on a train, her very large trunk starts leaking blood. When questioned by the police, she calmly reveals that the two dismembered bodies inside are of her unfaithful husband and his mistress. She is then sentenced by the judge (Roger Hammond) to a secure unit for the criminally insane for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Forty three years later, in the village of Little Wallop, Walter Goodfellow, the vicar (Rowan Atkinson) is very busy writing the perfect sermon for a convention, having no idea about the problems in his house, which include the unfulfilled emotional needs of his wife Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas) who subsequently starts an affair with her golf instructor, Lance (Patrick Swayze); the sexual desires and growing maturity of his teenage daughter Holly (Tamsin Egerton) who constantly picks up new boyfriends; and son Petey (Toby Parkes) who is bullied by schoolmates. Then everything changes with the arrival of the new housekeeper Grace (Maggie Smith).
Grace is installed into their lives and learns about some of the problems in the house – neighbour Mr Brown's nuisance barking Jack Russell terrier, Clarence, who consistently disturbs Gloria's sleep; the bullying of Petey; and Gloria and Lance's affair. Grace resolves to solve these problems in her own way. She first kills Clarence the Jack Russell, and when his owner finds out that his dog has been killed, she kills him, too. She sabotages the bullies' bicycles, injuring one of them and thereby making Petey very happy.
She catches the golf instructor outside the house one night, videotaping Holly undressing, and kills him with an iron. While Walter is preparing his sermon for the conference, Grace introduces him to having a sense of humour to his religion and also teaching him that he can still love his wife as well as God by drawing his attention to the erotic references in the Song of Solomon. As the problems in the household seem to be gradually clearing, Walter leaves for his convention.
Grace is discovered when Gloria and Holly see her picture on the television in a news item mentioning her release and previous offences. It is then that Grace reveals that she is Gloria's long-lost mother, Rosie Jones, explaining why she came to Little Wallop in the first place. Gloria argues that when having a problem with someone, one cannot just kill them. Grace remarks that this is the one thing she and her doctors could never agree on. Despite their disagreements, Gloria tries to help Grace remove Lance's body, but cannot face up to it. Over a cup of tea, the three women decide not to tell Walter or Petey any of what has happened.
When nagging congregant Mrs Parker (Liz Smith) comes over to discuss the problem of the church flower arranging committee, Grace, under the impression that Mrs Parker is about to turn them in, attempts to hit her over the head with a frying pan, but is prevented by Gloria. Mrs Parker, shocked by the murder attempt, has a heart attack and dies. Walter returns from the convention just then and sees Mrs Parker's body, but doesn't realise she is dead. Soon after this, Grace leaves the family when order seems to be restored among them.
At the end of the film, Walter is talking to Bob and Ted, the water works employees, about the pond at the Vicar's house. They say that there is too much algae and the pond needs to be drained. Remembering that Grace disposed of her victims in the pond, Gloria, with a disturbingly cheerful expression, offers the two men some tea. The film closes with an underwater shot depicting the bodies that had been placed in the pond, including the recently added bodies of Bob and Ted.

Tags: comedy, revenge, dark, murder

Review:
The rest of the cast play their archetypal characters or in the case of Patrick Swayze's caricature well.Though I was able to predict the overall plot, the story is entertaining and there is a gentle message about marital problems, the generation gap and hypocrisy.
I chuckled all the way home - think I'll go see it again tonight, as I have an "Unlimited" card, so can see as many movies as I like for 11 pounds a month.Seriously, this is not a "sweetness-and-light" comedy - it has a dark side, which is evident from the beginning, but that aspect drives the humour, because it touches feelings in us which we must restrain, but in watching the film we are allowed to indulge them.
It is not a film for belly laughs but the comedy is there, but not from Rowan Atkinson who plays the role of vicar with as straight a bat as one could wish.
highly entertaining, good black comedy.What seems like a perfect setting in middle england, with Rowan Atkinson who plays the local vicar.But all is not perfect in the family, with his wife yearning for more fun in life & his daughter getting too much fun & his son being bullied at school.The vicar has lost his sense of humour over the years.Things all change with the arrival of the new housekeeper, played by Maggie Smith.A surprising role for Patrick Swayze as the local gold pro but played well.Good fun film.
Then into her life walks an angel in the form of a new housekeeper, Grace.Thomas does very well with the central role in the film, Rowan Atkinson is absolutely brilliant as the mild-mannered clergyman Walter, and Maggie Smith is amazing as always as Grace.This is not a side-splitter comedy but it is certainly a comedy, as it deals with a number of serious issues of religion and morality with a light touch.
Real class.Kristin Scott Thomas is wonderfully funny and Rowan Atkinson is surprisingly brilliant as the ditzy, bumbling vicar because somehow he's never quite kicked the traces of "Mr Bean"!You'll be missing a truly wonderful experience if you don't hire or buy this movie - you won't be belly-laughing, but it'll certainly keep you tittering all the way through to the closing credits!.
To be honest, anything featuring Maggie Smith or Judi Dench can't fail at the Century and, as expected, Maggie steals the show as usual in this picture, with a very restrained but humorous portrayal of the mysterious new housekeeper to pastor Rowan Atkinson and his errant family.
She plays a sweet old homicidal maniac, who comes to work as a housekeeper for a set-in-his-ways vicar (Rowan Atkinson) in the parish of Little Wallop (a dinky little English village).
From that moment on the comedy is subtly woven into the plot, seamlessly lightening the melancholy mood of the characters.Rowan Atkinson is Walter Goodfellow, a genuine and lovable priest from the parish of Little Wallop.
Atkinson injects a very real sense of warmth and likability to the character, refraining from adding his usual style; while still keeping the character deliciously amusing.Kristin-Scott Thomas is Gloria Goodfellow, the frustrated and sleep depraved wife of the parish clergyman; she does a great job of capturing the inner turmoil of her character, keeping her genuine and easy to relate too, and she delivers some hilarious and sentimental dialogue perfectly.Tazmin Egerton is their daughter, she is dealing with her adolescence while her family is falling apart around her, and she performs very well, i'm quite surprised her career hasn't escalated from here?Patrick Swayze is Lance, Gloria's golf pro, he's a slimy character that you will hate with a passion, but Swayze plays him well.Finally Maggie Smith is Grace, and she was an inspired choice for the role, she captures the madness of the character subtly and forces the audience to like her no matter what she does; she really does excel in her performance.All in all the movie is consistently funny throughout, and it succeeds in feeling quite gloomy yet heartwarming at the same time, the script is brilliantly written and the characters are truly believable.
Keeping Mum. Rowan Atkinson, Kristen Scott Thomas In the sleepy little English village of Little Wallop, Reverend Goodfellow goes about his unrewarding church life totally oblivious to the problems of his family.
Other than church fete's and Sunday service nothing much happens in Little Wallop until the arrival of the Goodfellow's new housekeeper Grace Hawkins, who embarks on a mission to make everything alright in her own inimitable way.The cast is magnificent, Kristen Scott Thomas is superb as the long suffering frustrated wife and mother.
Atkinson is supremely crafted as the oblivious Walter Goodfellow, a role in which he's so natural you feel it was written for him and Maggie Smith is the epitome of a classic English comedy actress as Grace.
Keeping mum is a nice comedy which I had a good time watching it.It is not nothing memorable,but it kept me very fun.The actors fit well into their characters.But Maggie Smith steals the show.The film made me laugh on some parts and I was never bored and this film is way better than the craps of ''comedies'' Hollywood makes(for example,You,me and Dupree).Keeping mum is not the best comedy in the history of the cinema.But with its porpoise of entertaining the audience,it goes out winning.I recommend this movie as a good option if you wanna have a good time.Rating:7.
Comedy is harder than other plays, the reason why many great actors usually select to play at a mature age and both Maggie Smith and Kristine Scott Thomas support it excellent.
On the contrary, the cruel reality is that they may be encroaching many families even in a vicar's home and not only in the UK: dysfunctional but supposed religious family or figures, sexless marriage, the affair of a vicar's bored wife, the physically weak (the pregnant English Grace Hawkins and also her aged version) killing the physically strong (Lance the American) by drowning, sending a murderer to help is God's mysterious way, a murderer mother whom you have never met suddenly appears at your doorstep Mostly these are of some heaviness in life, yet they are dealt lightly or casually in the story.
The humor is very dark but very funny as she uses her insane ways to solve the family's problems.This was a very enjoyable little film that easily could have been a lot better had they just cleaned up the language a bit and removed all the gratuitous shots of breasts.
Kristen Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Rowan Atkinson, and Patrick Swayze all appear to be trying like crazy, but they have nothing to work with.
The film's not for children but adults will enjoy it if they like British humor and if you love Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Schoot Thomas or Maggie Smith this is a must see for any fan!
To see her perform again, I would endure the risk of cringing to Rowan Atkinson on the big screen.As it turned out, Atkinson just acted well, Swayze was on Donnie Darko form and Maggie Smith was just as magnificent as ever in a role so typically easy for her.To Grace, the problems were obvious and the solutions no less so.This movie is easy to watch, nostalgic English country village life combined with "Death Wish".
I'm not sure that this film can really be classed a "black comedy." It's more like an episode of one of those saccharine family drama/comedies, "Seventh Heaven," maybe, with a little black comedy thrown in.Rowan Atkinson is actually playing a dramatic part and the closest thing we get to laughs from him is stumbling over the word "God" at a vicars' convention.
Maggie Smith (it's AMAZING how she is able to reference her earlier incarnation as Rosie Jones) is perfect, and Kristin Scott Thomas demonstrates what she could do - if this film were consistently plotted as a comedy!
It had to be thought of that way because of the uniqueness of the story.Basically the story is about a noisy dog, an oversexed daughter, a wife with having an affair, and a totally sanitized priest who has no passion, humor or what is going on with the family.A housewife comes to solve the day, but not in a manner you will expect.While the ending, I won't spoil you is not as surprising.
The family of the retiring and oblivious Reverend Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson) is falling apart: his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) is lonely and looking for solace with the golf instructor (Patrick Swayze), his daughter is running wild, and his son is being bullied at school.
i went into this movie not knowing what to expect, but i like Maggie Smith and Kirsten Scott Thomas, and i am aware that Rowan Atkinson is one of England's top comedic actors.
i am also a huge fan of British black comedies, no one does it better.first off i like to say that Rowan Atkinson did a fine job playing the straight man instead of his usual, Kirsten Scott Thomas was her usual self, solid and dependable if not great actress...but the revelation in this movie is Maggie Smith.
Patrick Swayze in one of his final if not final role was a delight, this is the first time i believe where he isn't in his typical good guy roles.Rowan Atkinson is the head of his family, his wife Kirsten, and his two kids and he is also the vicar of his parish.
His wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) is having an affair with her golf pro (Patrick Swayze), his daughter (Tamsin Egerton) is a nymphomaniac and his son (Toby Parkes) is being bullied at school.
Maggie Smith is superb of course in this unusual role, as is Rowan Atkinson with his perfect comedic timing but I think that Kristen Scott Thomas was comedy gold as the wayward, bored housewife, Gloria, who's husband (the local vicar - Atkinson) had lost his way a little bit.
This was fun,the movie stands out distinctly amongst British comedies.I am very fond of comedy flicks especially British ones and i have to say that keeping mum was a great addition to my list of comedies so far.The subject touches the day to day lives of few people in a small village where the whole movie is based.The acting is superb and the story even better,British comedies show us how a film can be made to succeed with a simple background and no unusual stuff and so this film is all about that.I enjoyed watching this one & especially MAGGIE SMITH's performance which was top of the class.Never miss movies like this and so i recommend this one to all the fans..Real good stuff!!!.
Forty years later, the lives of a diffident vicar, his sexually-deprived wife and their children are turned around by the presence of their housekeeper, an elderly woman with a murderous approach to problem-solving.'Keeping Mum' resides in the populous waters of safe, feel-good middle-class British comedy films typically frequented by Hugh Grant.
Still, this is a film that doesn't like surprises - we know precisely who Maggie Smith's housekeeper (a kind of psychopathic Nanny McPhee) is from the outset, and thanks to the convention of the genre, any possible conflicts and plot twists can only have one ending - a happy one.Still, fans of feel-good cinema are not there to be drawn by originality or depth.
Keeping Mum is a 2005 comedy/crime/thriller/family drama/mystery but first and foremost, a British black comedy at its finest, subtle and the bizarre that stars Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rowan Atkinson, and Patrick Swayze.
That's when I discovered Maggie Smith and when I fell in love with her - yet every film I've seen her in, she shines in such a special way - I recall vividly the scene in that American film where she played Michael's Caine's wife and she was in LA for the Oscars and she wondered why they had to have them at 5 PM when no one looked good at 5 PM - I'm still laughing over that one!
Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith and Rowan Atkinson do very well to make an average screen-play more interesting than it deserves.
Wife of a reverend, Gloria finds her marriage boring and seeks help in the arms of another man, Lance (Swayze).Keeping Mum is a typical British film, focusing on serious issues such as marriage, religion and families.The British genre is one of my favourites.
It's a family with many issues and these issues are portrayed well, quite dramatically at points to, but as usual British cinema doesn't shy away from making its point.Maggie Smith's (Harry Potter) role is interesting and a good character for the plot.
i absolutely loved it i loved Rowan Atkinson and Maggie smith was great like always i thinks the film was great the ending was super but i would not spoilt it 4 those how haven,t watched it.
The vicar's unhappy wife, Scott-Thomas, brings an emotional flood to a almost dry desert that is Keeping Mum. The whole family is going through problems, each member with a specialty of their own, that seem to be mysteriously extinguished by the eloquently execrable new house keeper, Grace Hawkins (Maggie Smith).
(Anyhow can a film with Maggie Smith and Kirstin Scott Thomas be anything but delightful?) To analyze this heavy handedly would be totally the wrong approach, its just good fun, in a way an old fashioned murder mystery is.
Whether this is considered black comedy or dark comedy, the film is absolutely awful and an insult to anyone's intelligence.When Maggie Smith leaves prison after 40 years for the murder of her husband and his lover, she goes to work for a vicar and his wife that are having problems.The vicar is an absolute bore, dull jerk.
Why people with the talent of Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas and Patrick Swayze would play in this junk is hard to imagine.
His wife Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas), however, is unsatisfied by her marriage and starts an affair with a smarmy and sleazy golf instructor, played by Patrick Swayze (strangely enough, he was perfect for the part).Along comes the new housekeeper, Grace Hawkins (Maggie Smith), a tender and caring addition to the household, who's also a convicted murderer.
She's sort of a psychotic-but-sweet Mary Poppins who makes all the family's dreams come true by means of murder, mayhem, and manslaughter.Atkinson hasn't been this good since Mr. Bean, and Smith is so classy and so funny that you can't help but love her, no matter how demented her character may appear.
Years late in Little Wallop, Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas) is the long suffering wife of reverend Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson).
His wife Gloria (Kristin Scott-Thomas) is considering an affair with slimy golf instructor Lance (Patrick Swayze), his daughter Holly (Tamsin Egerton) has a succession of unsuitable boyfriends and his son Petey (Toby Parkes) is being bullied at school.
But Grace has plenty of dark secrets of her own and soon, her unusual methods of keeping the peace create more problems for Gloria than they actually solve...There aren't many actors who are happy to play up to their usual characters but the cast of "Keeping Mum" all do a fantastic job, adding a worrying authenticity to proceedings but the star of the show is Smith who is simply wonderful as the naughty nanny with a mysterious trunk "full of memories".
Johnson along with his fellow screenplay writer Richard Russo won the well deserved film discovery jury award for screenplay for this 90 minute wonder.It excellently en-capsules the average British family life, (but with a slight twist) ; a nymphomaniac teenage daughter with a bullied, naive younger brother, a well-meaning vicar father and a mother who is having an affair with her American golf pro and on top of dealing with all of that, trying and failing at 'Keeping Mum' out of trouble.
Maggie Smith acts her character out perfectly and keeps the humour intact and rolling well, nonetheless, she plays the same old role as most of her other films; a fragile old woman with an innermost gut and determination.
The minister, Walter (Rowan Atkinson) is a forgetful person, preoccupied with his work -- so preoccupied that he's stopped having sex with his wife Gloria (Kristen Scott Thomas) who is contemplating an affair with her golf pro Lance (Patrick Swayze).
Walter's and Gloria's beautiful older daughter (Tamsin Egerton) is a nympho and knows her mom isn't getting any, and their son (Toby Parkes) is the object of bullying at school.Grace sets about making things right for the family, but sometimes her methods are a bit questionable."Keeping Mum" is a wonderful English comedy, and the performances are superb.
The problems upsetting the family start to fade away after Grace Hawkins, the new housekeeper arrives and starts tending to matters as an older, and rather darkly mysterious version of Mary Poppins.Keeping Mum isn't a movie I'll add to my collection, but I certainly enjoyed its dark, unique style, and the cast looked to be having a blast with it.
Ah, that British sense of humour which I so miss....I honestly believe that the top billing of the film should go to Maggie Smith, and not to Rowan Atkinson.
Rowan Atkinson makes a brilliant appearance as the Reverend, although it is unusual to see him play a rather normal role and leave the funnier parts to Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Remember also, it's British.Reverend Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson) has what looks like a perfect, model family which however has its share of little problems - a fashion-model-looking 17-year old daughter "with a libido", a still younger son who is perpetually bullied at school and a lovely wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) who is "not getting enough".
They hire mysterious housekeeper, Grace Hawkins, (Maggie Smith, who just steals the show) who has a very interesting yet effective way to solve all of their problems...Anyway, great film, highly recommended, go see it!.