Bugger, Bollocks and Blimey

I didn't meet my great-grandmother until she was almost 80. That's when we brought her from England to the States. I remember she wore the same blue dress with white flowers, it matched her tea set which was white with blue flowers. She had stylishly coiffed cotton for hair and she always smelled faintly of Earl Grey. Her back was always straight, her upper lip pursed and poised to aid in the delivery of clever sarcasm at a moment's notice. Not that I would have understood the sarcasm since I could barely understand a word she said through her thick accent. In fact, the only words I would come to recognize from her were 'Bugger', 'Bollocks' and 'Blimey'. She usually released a urgent combination of those when I would sneak up from behind and scare her. It was cute the way she used to swat at me, pretending not to like that.

There was always something mysterious about great-gran, as if she had just casually committed some felony before sitting down to a proper afternoon tea. I suppose that is why this film reminded me of her.



Keeping Mum

This is a wonderful, light-hearted but dark comedy. Not dark really, just murky. I like this form of British comedy, the causal delivery of the punch beneath the breath, turning the hideous into something near-banal, something that will put a smile on your face, or maybe make you laugh out loud.

I was hoping that Rowan Atkinson wouldn't spin this into Mr. Bean. He didn't. And he was surprisingly good! Maggie Smith, what can we say, she's always fantastic. No surprise to see her anchor the film as the slightly disturbed but well-meaning nanny. Leaving the plot details alone since discovering those was part of the film's appeal.

8.0/10
Keeping Mum