Keeping Mum

I certainly hate being a nice person. You're constantly turning the other cheek when jerks take advantage of you, and you get screwed over on a regular basis (until you join some kind of secret organization that grants you safe passage through the art of nepotism). Yup, bein' nice ain't pretty without some kind of supportive underground institution at your back, which is something Grace Hawkins' doesn’t possess during the opening moments of Niall Johnson's new black comedy Keeping Mum. We are introduced to Grace's delightfully polite persona riding a train through the quaint English countryside after having hacked her husband and his mistress to pieces. Convicted of manslaughter, and lacking the direct saving graces of a powerful nepository, she is indirectly saved by being sent to a mental institution. At this point, the stage is set for some tightly paced relatively anti-climatic Mary Poppins pastiching, complete with a supporting role by one Patrick Swayze.

The Goodfellow family consists of a number of somewhat troubled people confronting the vicious polarity established between desire and reason. Reverend Walter (Rowan Atkinson) is so caught up with mundane minutia that he's been neglecting his wife Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas) for some time. His distracted, clumsy, scholarly nature is highlighted symbolically during his first scene, when his wife attempts to schedule an intimate appointment. Instead of responding energetically, Walter haplessly stares out through the small kitchen window, our severed image of his person highlighting his skewed conjugal perceptions.

The Goodfellow family interacts together as best they can until Grace Hawkins (Maggie Smith) lands in their midst, dispensing advice and neighbours with a commensurate degree of clandestine clarity.

It's a bit strange, with plenty of potent punishment, love, strong family bonding, romance, and a nasty speedo. The ending's like a toned down version of Cronenberg's Shivers or Polanski's Macbeth, and look for a cameo from James Booth, aka, Ernie Niles from Twin Peaks.