1.78:1 DVD capture: Mrs. Henderson Presents The DVD

The Weinstein Company shepherds Mrs. Henderson Presents to DVD through Genius Products in competing widescreen and fullscreen editions; we received the former for review. Presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, the film looks consistently noir-ish but not always by design, and the source print has more wear-and-tear than I like to see from a new release. Saturation and fine detail, on the other hand, are both excellent. The adjoining Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is terrific, with the insular dialogue sequences transitioning effortlessly into largely-auditory depictions of the Blitz; I wish there was a bit more discrete activity overall, but that's the fault of the mix, not this hi-fi presentation. On another track, a somnambulant Stephen Frears occasionally mumbles commentary; a viewer's time would be better spent reading our own interview with the director linked at the bottom of this review. Also on board is the 5-part, 24-minute "The Making of Mrs. Henderson Presents", a superficial behind-the-scenes doc from Special Treats Productions. Therein we meet a handful of the original Windmill Girls, who were invited to some kind of luncheon with the film's stars prior to shooting. Frears, Bob Hoskins, and a barely-interviewed Judi Dench are predictably feted, though Will Young seems to get the lion's share of attention, for reasons that could only be contractual. A step-frame gallery of production stills plus Mrs. Henderson Presents' theatrical trailer round out the special features, while trailers for The Libertine and Transamerica cue up on startup.-Bill Chambers

The Film
excerpted from a longer review found here

Perennial nominee Dame Judi Dench stars as the titular theatre-owner in Stephen Frears' Mrs. Henderson Presents, one of those bland, inoffensive, boring British movies about the British theatre (like Topsy-Turvy, perhaps, or, more to the point, Shakespeare in Love). Mrs. Henderson is widowed (an early scene of her alone in a boat is lovely) and bored and a woman of means, and so she buys and renovates London's Windmill Theatre into a round-the-clock "revuedeville," hiring stage manager Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) to run the place. This leads to a number of fusty exchanges between the two that some would call "bickering," others "bantering," and still others "Tracy and Hepburn-esque." (I'm happy with "grating," though, or "circular and aimless"--something along those lines.) Together they arrive at the conclusion that the best way to drum up a little extra business is by hiring the openly-gay winner of postwar England's version of "American Idol" (Will Young) to headline--well, him and a bunch of young girls willing to doff their clothes.

This runs up against the business end of Lord Cromer's (Christopher Guest) censor stick (the tits, not the queer), thus a compromise is struck whereby the beauties are to be posed like statuary with nary a twitch to inflame the pre- (and during-/post-, as it happens) Blitz crowds. In no time, great big draughts of sentimentality crowd the proscenium while Dench stalks around, chewing scenery in the manner to which she's become accustomed (five minutes of this character was too much in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice--you can imagine what 102 feel like), and when she gets tired, Hoskins takes over, doing the same in various stages of undress. Twee and suffocatingly proper despite its intimations of scandal, Mrs. Henderson Presents could've/should've dealt with freedom through art or grief or the juncture of the two somehow, but is in the end a bunch of teary-eyed monologues and noble Oscar clips strung together with the usual awards-season tinsel. If you squint even a bit, you could swear that Miramax is alive and well.-Walter Chaw

Read our exclusive interview with Mrs. Henderson Presents director Stephen Frears!