Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

This review may contain spoilers!

Comedy as old, outdated and revolting as it's two main leads. I would give Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie a 2/10.

This film is having it's own kind of fun which as an audience member you can appreciate, the wild antics of Saunders and Lumley can be enjoyable at times purely for their chemistry. The score for this film isn't utilised often but it goes hand in hand with the film well when it is; I also thought the soundtrack was the best quality of the film (excepting that one scene with the terrible lip sync).

Jane Horrocks, who played Bubble, was a really quirky character who I actually enjoyed quite a bit; her outlandish lines made for one of the better main characters in the film. Mark Gatiss, who played Joel, was a really genuine minor role; Gatiss serious and stern portrayal sets the bar for quality acting in this film. Graham Norton, who played himself, was a fun appearance in this film; Norton didn't let himself be the butt of Saunders character and brought a bit of spirit to the lackluster start.

However the best performance came from Rebel Wilson, who played Air Stewardess. Wilson stood out as probably the best comedic talent within the film, actually delivering lines and acting in her scene in a way that made me laugh. The difference between Wilson's comedic acting and the performance from the leads of the film is that Wilson had screen presence and knows how to play to an audience while the leads dry insults are delivered ineffectually. Wilson was a great minor performance and had the best scene of the film.

The story for this film is so all over the place and has no sense of direction that I can't really pinpoint the exact problem with it, mainly because the whole thing is flawed and must have had one of the worst scripts of all time. You're sitting around so long waiting for something, anything, to engage you or make you laugh and it never happens which results in a long dragged lethargic film. The comedy of this film is terrible and not just because of the dry delivery from the cast, I would love for this film to have made some genuine jokes rather than just throw out every insult under the sun towards race, gay people, transgender people or people living in poverty; it was appalling and made for an ugly comedy. The cinematography was no good at all, in fact it tended towards the simplistic and evaded a unique visual style. The editing created an abysmally slow film and the choppy changes in the film's presentation style was quite jarring.

Lulu, who played herself, was a rather annoying role; she started off with next to no screen presence and then became an extremely unnecessary minor antagonist. Gwendoline Christie, who played herself, looked like she wasn't having a fun time in this film at all; she didn't put much work into her lines and essentially coasted through scenes. Jennifer Saunders, who played Edina, was a thoroughly despicable protagonist; you think if Saunders couldn't be funny in this film then she'd at least make the effort to create a character you liked by the end. Joanna Lumley, who played Patsy, was just as annoying as Saunders in this film so at least they had that going for them; her vain two-dimensional performance meant that Lumley became hard to watch after ten minutes. Julia Sawalha, who played Saffy, was such a bland role; Sawalha allows her character to be stereotyped and then never delivers a performance that breaks away from this cliche. Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness, who played Lola, is the constant butt of some horrific racist jokes in this film; she looks constantly unimpressed and I can hardly blame her. June Whitfield, who played Mother, really didn't do anything in this film; her character certainly made appearances but she had no substance to her role. Mo Gaffney and Christopher Ryan, who played Bo and Marshall respectively, were some of the most offensive characters of the film; on one hand making light of having a sex change and then saying that all people are black people (!!!). Nick Mohammed and Kathy Burke, who played Casper and Magda, give very stilted performances in this film; their over the top roles of assistant and boss are a bit much. Celia Imrie, who played Claudia Bing, was a rather forgettable antagonist in this film; Bing's rivalry with Saunders felt a bit forced at times. Robert Webb, who played Nick, was a incredibly poor choice to play a police detective as he did not fit the type of character at all; he didn't even manage a good job in the romance subplot because he had no chemistry with Sawalha. Chris Colfer, who played Christopher, was a character that really wasn't all that appealling; his constantly mean barbs and racist role made for a big disappointment. Stella McCartney, who played herself, has this really weak rivalry with Saunders in this film; sadly McCartney can't perform to save herself and comes off as a bit wooden. Kate Moss, who played herself, wasn't even really a character in this film; Moss was essentially carted around as a glorified plot device to advance the story. Emma Bunton, who played herself, didn't really have a strong presence in this film; she was rather hastily dragged into the final act of the film as a sort of/sort of not antagonist. Jon Hamm, who played himself, looked thoroughly awkward and out of place; Hamm's exchange with Lumley is painful and not a very pleasant scene for him or the audience. Barry Humphries, who played Charlie, was the type of seedy character I had come to expect from this film by the time he appeared onscreen; Humphries weak take on Hugh Hefner falls flat. Marcia Warren, who played Lubliana, acts out the beyond ridiculous subplot of her marrying Lumley disguised as a man without much energy or emotion at all; Warren doesn't seem to enjoy this subplot and I certainly didn't either.