Absolutely Fabulous: Le Film

I own every DVD of every AbFab show, and I still enjoy them today as I did when they were on BBC. I wish I could rate this a 10, but I am being extremely generous rating it a 6.

What went wrong: Jennifer Saunders wrote a weak script devoid of the essence that made the show what it was in the 90s. It actually started out pretty good. It opens at a fashion catwalk show, and the stumbling duo make a funny entrance. The film kept up that tone until Kate Moss lands in the water.

Then, it's like we are watching another movie. Saunders reverts to a strong story-line, and the movie begins to go south from there on. The original show was never so much about the story as it was about the interaction between the cast members, the situations they found themselves in, (like in the Courtroom after being busted for something usually relating to drugs) as well as the slapstick antics pulled off by the fidgety, head shaking Saunders and the tramp, her pal Lumley; both were on a 24 hour buzz from the 70s, consuming every drug in the universe 24/7 to the point where walking was a full time job I felt Lumley seemed to 'try too hard' in this film, to the point of appearing nasty.

My main problem with the film is the fact that the two lead characters were heartless and cruel. They think they may have drowned Bubble while using her to find Kate moss in the Thames River. They drag her along on a rope, submerged in the river. After the rope brakes, Patsy says "Don't worry about it, they'll never trace it back to us". Edna agrees and smiles with no remorse as to the possible death of her friend and secretary. This attitude plays through the entire movie, especially with Patsy appearing completely heartless. If you can't like your lead characters, you can't like the movie. Being crazy is one thing, being heartless, and nasty is another.

Of course we can't ever forget about Bubble (Edna's PA). I haven't decided whether she was under utilized in this installment, or out to lunch. Either way, it was disappointing to me, because she was one of my favorite characters on the TV show. She's in the movie, but her role just wasn't as as funny or unique as it was in the series.

I also thought Saunders overdid the Botox. She was almost expressionless and appeared to be plastic with little of her former energy. When she fell out of her car as she did a thousand times in the TV show, we laughed. Now, it looked like it hurt, and it seemed difficult for her to do. Perhaps she was actually too fat at this point in her life, to comfortably play her fat self character Edna.

The direction by Mandie Fletcher was embarrassing to watch. The script played out so convoluted, and disjointed, it might have been directed by Barnum and Bailey. However, the HD cinematography was spectacular, colorful, and beautiful to watch; the wardrobe was glorious, and so were locations chosen for the film.

Also on the plus side, it was great to see the old gang back together again, and a special shout out to June Whitfield, who at 92 years of age, gave the best performance of the lot, and had lost none of her character's essence. Her performance, along with Julia Sawalha's surprising singing abilities, were bonus surprises that I truly enjoyed.

I really hate to see AbFab go out like this, but you reap what you sew, and Saunders fell a bit short of being a master seamstress in this attempt at a modern day AbFab. However, I'm still glad she made the film. The visuals were enough to save it.

Several years on from when we last saw Patsy and Eddy, Patsy is still in her fashion critic role but Eddie's fortunes have waned. Her list of PR clients is limited and low-key and her memoirs are not going to get published. While attempting to gain Kate Moss as a client, Eddie accidentally pushes her into the River Thames. Moss does not reappear and Eddie becomes a murder suspect, and Public Enemy Number 1. To escape the publicity Eddie and Patsy head for Nice.

Being a fan of the TV series I did not have great expectations for this movie. TV-to-movie conversions seldom work and in this case the TV series finished four years previously and was pretty much done long before that.

In the end, I was right about the conversion aspect - there's not enough material to sustain a feature film and the movie is festooned with silly scenes to pad out the time. The characters haven't aged well, and Joanna Lumley's script has not really adapted to their aging, seeming to still be based in the 90s in terms of character traits. Saffy / Julia Sawalha and Bubble / Jane Horrocks are particularly hard done by in this regard.

This said, its not all bad. There is a great swipe at the pretentiousness of the fashion industry and the superficiality of the media. There are also a few very funny moments. While the main characters feel like they're misplaced in time, and are living off old glories, some of the secondary characters make up for this. Kathy Burke as Magda is particularly entertaining.

Ultimately quite uneven with just enough good bits to make it likable.

A movie produced on the same material 25 years after the heyday of a television show will take a toll on quality. At the time, the Dawn French / Joana Lumley show traded on its subversive material and outrageous performances. Since then the world has moved dramatically toward the outpost the two established for themselves putting the show's aesthetic somewhere in the middle of the culture. So relying on the same shock value jokes from the early 90's results in the film's now mildly eye-raising but still mostly funny lines. All of the standbys from the original appear: Eddie gives her daughter poor parenting advice, her daughter lectures her to be more conservative, Lumley pulls out her "Pat Stone" routine at one point, she blacks out, etc., etc., etc. Vintage stuff if a little worn. The softness of the script benefits from a very long list of cameos although American audiences will miss many of the local British faces who didn't quite become global names. In short, like "Zoolander 2", AbFab the movie relies more on nostalgia than good writing but for hardcore fans that may be enough.

It started very slowly, and at first I was really worried that this was nothing but a cash grab...after they "killed" Kate Moss, though, it really took off! In lieu of a "review", I've got bullet points:

*Stella McCartney was totally hilarious, but only if you know your Beatles

*It saddens me to say, but the least funny person in this film is...BUBBLE??? Let me put it this way - in "AF:tM", she is the equivalent of Jack Black in "Tropic Thunder"

*Saffy's tirade is hysterically funny...but only if you watched the series

*I recognized Barry Humphries in his 2 seconds as Dame Edna, but NOT as Charles...I didn't realize it until the credits

*I LOVED the homage to "Some Like it Hot"!!

If you are a fan of the first three of the six seasons of Absolutely fabulous like I was, you might be,disappointed in this long awaited movie. This movie seems to have been written by the writers of seasons 4-6. Writers of Seasons 4-6 seemed to believe saying "Sweetie Darling" would get laughs, and they were wrong! This movie seems to be an unedited/uncensored two part episode from season 6 that somehow was a turned into a theatrical release. Just like seasons 4-6, this move was bland but amusing. Footnote: Get a load of a certain British starlet from 1950s on up who was doing cameos near the end.. She should put together an info-mercial on the Botox she used. You would never believe that's her at eighty plus of age.