Alas, this film was not very good.
Judi Dench shines as an elderly Queen Victoria who befriends Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal). His life is service and he is thrilled that the Queen has taken a shine to him while her eldest son, Bertie (Eddie Izzard) growls in the corner. Abdul did have a humble background but is able to teach the Queen about the lovely subcontinent of India as she is its empress but has never been there and wants to know more about it.
The scenes with those two actors shine while the rest of the film suffers. Bertie is close-minded and nasty, cruel and misunderstanding of different cultures. And there is the stupid, ridiculous subplot of the fact that Abdul and his wife don't have children.
The film starts to suffer in the second fact, after Victoria discovers that Abdul fabricated some information to her to build himself up. But she forgives him as the two deeply respect each other. She values him far more than her own son.
While the film tries and tells a good story, unfortunately, I feel that because a lasting impression was not left on the world, as immediately after Victoria's death, Bertie banished Abdul back to India and burned all traces of him from the palace and society, it is too trivial for the big screen and would have been more suited for the smaller one. Dench is still a revelation though. Grade: B-
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