Movie Review: 'Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Ab Fab is back.
And, given the state of the world of late and our collective need for a few laughs, not a moment too soon.
But hold on, sweetie darlings: just because a movie is a comedy doesn't mean it's funny.
And the movie version of Absolutely Fabulous bypassed the exit to Funny two miles back.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is the big-screen incarnation of the BBC sitcom that became a cult hit in the nineties and oughts.
It's a comedy focused on the outlandish behavior and courageous misadventures of Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone, now a good deal older but absolutely no wiser, played respectively by Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley.
Behaving badly and excess in all things seem to be their twin mandates.
In vivid contrast to senior citizens who grow old gracefully, these two seem intent on aging disgracefully.
Edina has a public relations agency and Patsy is a fashion editor, but never were two people less defined by their jobs.
Instead, these best friends spend their time bitching and boozing, obsessed with fashion and substance abuse, and driving Edina's sensible and long-suffering daughter, Saffron (Julia Sawalha), crazy with their self-absorption and unapologetic hedonism.
The premise this trip: Products of a bygone era, and therefore somewhat out of touch and out of date of late, and yearning for celebrity status in the severely changed modern world, Eddie and Patsy attract attention from the police and then from the media for – ahem – accidentally knocking supermodel and potential public-relations client Kate Moss into the River Thames.
So, with Moss presumed dead and our heroines essentially suspected of murder, they skedaddle from London and go on the lam, heading for the south of France and hiding out in Cannes, where they check into one of the Riviera's swankiest hotels.
And whatever they have to do to set themselves up for a stumbled-upon life of luxury, they're willing to give it a try.
Given that senior actresses rarely get the chance to headline raucous comedies like Absolutely Fabulous, it's gratifying to experience women of age headlining.
But working from a tone-deaf script doesn't help them much. Of course, given that one of the film's stars wrote it, the buck stops here.
The director, Mandie Fletcher (Deadly Advice), most of whose background is in television, works from the campy, farcical, sprawling screenplay by series creator Saunders that traffics in politically incorrect humor; frequent brief cameos, some unfamiliar to those of us on this side of the pond; numerous slapstick bits; a threadbare plot; and elements familiar to viewers acquainted with the television series.
But the only segment of the audience likely to embrace the film are loyal fans of the TV series so happy to be back in the presence of Saunders and Lumley that they don't even notice that the film doesn't come close to living up to its title.
So we'll indulge 1-1/2 stars out of 4. The absurdist ode to self-indulgence and irresponsibility, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, is big and brash and barbed and boozy and breezy and sometimes bloody bizarre. What it's not, however, is funny.
