February 22, 2006

FILM REVIEW
Windmill Chasing

Mrs. Henderson Presents
Directed by Stephen Frear
Opens Jan. 13

By LESTER GRAY
Arts Editor

For all their brutal colonialism, the British possess an enviable brand of civility that, when coupled with the proverbial stiff upper lip, makes for the most appealing sorts. Such are the characters of Mrs. Henderson Presents who, while varied in social station, are united in keeping the old chin up.

The film, based on a true story, manages sentimentality well. Determination and good intentions find their rewards; God gives some what they want, most what they need, and in general everyone considers themselves blessed.

It’s the early 1930s and Laura Henderson (Judi Dench), a high society Brit in late middle age, has just buried her husband. Uncinching the strings of both her social corset and purse, she purchases an “out of business” theater in London’s Soho district, which at the time was considered an unseemly act for someone of her ilk.

This impetuosity, however, does not signal an abandonment of her pedigree or the imperious nature that attends it, her airs generating considerable friction when she hires Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins), a Jewish impresario, to manage what is to become the storied Windmill Theatre. She initially views him as an amusing and talented subordinate: a worthy adversary whom she admires for his refusal to cower or compromise.

He, in response to her officiousness, demands artistic control and bars her from her own theater — an edict serving as a source of levity as Mrs. Henderson invents ways to circumvent this banishment.

As the two prove mutually beneficial, if not critical, to each other’s goals, they arrive at an improvised détente: she agrees to underwrite the theater through its fiscal vicissitudes and he puts his heart and soul into creating a product that stays ahead of the always-looming competition.

That this neat delineation of responsibility proves unsustainable is fortunate, as it is her creativity that saves the Windmill when its round-the-clock vaudeville lineup starts to lose its drawing power.

Taking a cue from Paris’ Moulin Rogue, Mrs. Henderson proposes using nude starlets. Setting aside Van Damm’s weariness of government censors, she brings her political skills to bear, negotiating a novel arrangement with the powers that be (which are, after all, her personal friends). This results in the Windmill’s storied tableaux girls, who rescue the box office.

The film leans to the polished side of director Stephen Frear’s rough-hewn style but retains the element of characters bound by caste who prove variously heroic or cowardly in dealing with their fate.

Mrs. Henderson Presents, which shows the Windmill struggling to remain open during the German air raids of London, has a special appeal for U.K. audiences. But apart from any nationalistic attachment and especially with the engaging performance of Ms. Dench, it should please the Yanks as well.