“The Duke” (M) *** and a half

MOVIE critics and reviewers around the globe have been almost universal in proclaiming satisfaction about this social comedy.

It is a fitting farewell to its director Roger Michell, who died in September shortly before the Australian release of “The Duke”, apparently before it came out in the rest of the world.

It’s based on a minor cause celebre in Britain in 1961. A portrait, now owned by the British National Gallery in London, suddenly went missing. Painted by Francisco Goya in 1812-14, its purpose then was to memorialise the Duke of Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon’s French troops at Salamanca and victorious entry into Madrid in August 1812. Close-ups in the film of the painting may accurately represent the subject. To purloin and mangle a phrase, Arthur Wellesley is no oil painting! Except here.

So, to Roger Michell’s swan song closing an impressive filmography. In 1961, taxi driver Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent), privately a supporter of socialist and feminist issues, who couldn’t stand the Duke, stole the painting and hid it in his council house away from his law-abiding wife (Helen Mirren). 

He then held the painting for ransom and wrote to tell the government that the gallery could have it back if he got money to help old-age pensioners get TV licences for free. 

His son Jackie (Fionn Whitehead), was on Kempton’s side, but things went pear shaped when the picture was found. Kempton later went to prison for a short time. 

On this framework of actual events, writers Richard Bean and Clive Coleman have built a screenplay rich in warm humour, subtle in its observations of the characters and ultimately rewarding to people who have bought tickets to watch it. 

The tensions don’t overwhelm its portrayal. A fair slice of the film’s 96 minutes takes place in a court where a West Yorkshire audience makes its expectations clear and a jury enjoys its task. 

If the outcome of Kempton’s campaign is predictable, it’s not because of prejudice against the fact that in those days – and for all I know, still – unlicensed British TV viewers might feel the full weight of the law including time behind bars! 

The mind boggles nowadays, but that’s how it was then. The film’s viewers get reasons more to smile than to laugh but that doesn’t diminish its satisfaction quotient.

At all cinemas