Roger Michell's TEA WITH THE DAMES proves a "must" for fans of four great British actresses

Wild horses couldn't hold back fans of the four great actresses -- Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins -- featured in the new documentary, TEA WITH THE DAMES from viewing this film. All four are indeed Dames (the female equivalent of British knighthood) and their storied careers are covered in some detail and depth in this 81-minute documentary directed by that fine journeyman filmmaker Roger Michell (Notting Hill, The Mother, Le Week-end). The film is non-stop pleasure for fans, of which this quartet has millions.

Mr. Michell, shown at left, makes himself mostly scarce as he records a get-together of the four (this sort of thing happens fairly regularly, we are told, as the women have been fast friends for deacdes now), during which the ladies -- sorry, Dames -- laugh, reminisce, bring each other up to date and finally dare to explore their somewhat limited future possibilities.

Michell and his foursome daren't go too deep. Whenever a sad or distressing subject pops up, there's a pause and we can see that a discordant chord has been struck, of which we may or may not already be aware -- the death of a loved one, a failed relationship -- but this is enough to bring us up short, before we move on to lighter topics.

There's a lovely intimacy to the movie, in which the women, of course, understand that they are being filmed. God knows, they're used to this and so can behave as close to "normal" as the viewer could desire. (That's Smith, above, and Atkins below.)

Ms Plowright (at left, below) has lost her sight (something TrustMovies did not know going into the film) and so proves the saddest of the lot. Not that she herself perhaps feels so sad, but it is she, perforce, who does the least here, and that cannot help but make the viewer sad, given all her fine performances that we remember.

The documentary is shot through with archival photos and snippets of some of the actresses stage, screen and TV work, and this proves an utter delight. Seeing Dench (below) performing as a young woman will make some Americans wish that we'd grown up in Britain, just to have been able to see so much more of her (as well as the others') sterling work.

The in-and-out/past-and-present editing (by Joanna Crickmay and Anthony Wall) is first-rate, and the movie bounces along at a good pace. By the time the women break out the champagne, you'll feel as if you could join right in, so intimate, enjoyable, sometimes even memorable -- that's Smith receiving her "Damehood" from Queen Elizabeth, below -- has been this afternoon "tea."

If America has four comparable actresses with this much exceptional work behind them (and some in front of them, one hopes), particularly in legitimate theater, I can't imagine who they are. Even our Meryl pales in comparison.

From IFC Films and Sundance Selects, the documentary arrives in New York City this Friday, September 21, at the IFC Center and the Quad Cinema, and then the following Friday, September 28, it hits Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. Here in South Florida, it opens Friday, October 5 in Coral Gables at the Bill Cosford Cinema, in Miami Beach at the O Cinema, and in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theater. If you're not near these locations, don't despair: The film will hit VOD next Thursday, September 27.

Roger Michell's MY COUSIN RACHEL: Is she or isn't she? (Even her hairdresser can't be sure)

When a movie is utterly devoted to pulling its audience one way and then the other regarding its central character and whether she is good or evil, chances are that the character in question will finally have no character at all. So it is with Roger Michell's newly adapted (from the novel by Daphne Du Maurier) and directed version of MY COUSIN RACHEL. As big a fan as TrustMovies is of the actress, Rachel Weisz, who stars in the title role, her performance, along with the film itself, has nowhere to go and so becomes a tiresome, pretty-to-view blank.

Mr. Michell, shown at right, has some splendid films to his credit -- from Notting Hill and The Mother to Hyde Park on Hudson and Le Week-end -- but this one, I think, is simply misjudged. (Though, not having read the novel nor seen the earlier version, perhaps the blame rests with the late Ms Du Maurier.) Nor does it help matters that, along with a title character who has none, we also have a leading man, played by the excellent Sam Claflin (below, of Their Finest), who begins the movie as something of a twit and soon becomes a full-fledged twat.

My goodness: Who are we to root for here? Most of the minor characters seem to have their ducks in a row, but, clearly, they are not what matters. So we keep coming back and back again to Rachel and her cousin Philip until their would-be love story, which eventually seem less like the icing on the cake (there is no cake) and more like the foam on the beer.

There's an earlier marriage, along with what may or may not be an untimely death; a vast estate; an inheritance and a will (two of these, I think); jewels; another woman (in waiting, at least); maybe another man (the final explanation of which should be embarrassing to the Greeks); and lots more. And none of it matters in the least.

The supporting casts boasts the likes of Iain Glen (above, right), Holiday Grainger and Italy's Pierfrancesco Favino and the cinematography -- of England and Italy -- is lovely. Finally, though, all you want to say to him is, "Grow up!" And to her, "Get lost!"

From Fox Searchlight and running a seemingly very long 106 minutes, My Cousin Rachel opens wide this Friday, June 9. Click here to locate the theaters nearest you.

Broadbent and Duncan in LE WEEK-END: It's another fine Michell and Kureishi collaboration

The decade-long collaboration between director Roger Michell (shown below, right) and writer Hanif Kureishi (further below, left) now includes three remarkable films: The Mother (from 2003, in which Daniel Craig showed us capabilities far in excess of anything his 007 has managed), Venus (2006 and one of Peter O'Toole's latter-day wonders) and now LE WEEK-END, in which Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan play a long-married Brit couple taking a quickie vacation in Paris. For my money the Michell/Kureishi oeuvre is every bit as interesting and fine as Kureishi's earlier collaboration with Stephen Frears that resulted in only two films (but good ones!): My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.

Le Week-End proves quite a surprise for both its on-screen participants and those of us in the audience because, though it goes places we might expect concerning a long-married couple, because this "terrible twosome" is in a foreign country, and particularly in "the city of light," some kind of sea change occurs that allows the pair to, yes, bicker, fight and hurt each other but somehow manage to burn right through to the other side of it all. This is due, I think, to some very

fine writing by Kureishi that probes history and need in a natural, non-expositionary manner, and to three simply marvelous performances (the third is from the amazing, funny and quite wonderful Jeff Goldblum, who plays an old friend and compatriot of the husband, whom the pair encounters by chance one Parisian evening). How our couple steers its course around the Scyllas & Charybdises (did I get those plurals correct?) of the senior years, marriage, mentor-ing and professional jealousy makes for a most thoughtful, moving, funny and entertaining 93 minutes.

Mr. Goldblum, above, continues to amaze via his later work -- from Adam Resurrected onwards (he's out now in two movies: this one and The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I've yet to see). Here he tamps down the pomposity (it's still there but used so charmingly and well) and offers a performance alive with the quiet fear of a successful man who realizes that he is something of a fake, while enjoying what that fakery can bestow. And, ah, how he still loves his old friend.

Mr. Broadbent and Ms Duncan, above and below, as always, are stunningly real and immensely enjoyable to watch as they show us the ins and out of a couple for whom life together and life apart seem equally unbearable. Every moment here is real -- and entertaining, too, in the manner that fine acting always is.

Paris, too, has seldom seemed so special. And not in the charming and funny manner that Woody Allen presented it at "Midnight." Just walking down the street seems some kind of blessing, and  the meals -- ah, well! The British, as well as us Americans, may make fun of the French (and vice versa) but there is no denying the special place Paris hold in the hearts of so many of us. This movie brings that home.

The film's climax takes place at a dinner party at which our couple goes their own separate ways for a time: she into the sphere of an attractive younger gentleman (above), he into the room of the Goldblum character's son. These are lovely, poignant, genuine scenes, and the result -- taking place over the communal dinner table -- is one for the books.

Le Week-End, released by Music Box Films, opens tomorrow, Friday, March 14, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and in Los Angeles at The Landmark. The following week it will hit theaters in another dozen cities and then continue spreading out in the weeks to come. To see all currently scheduled playdates with cities and theaters listed, click here, and then click THEATERS on the menu bar midway down your screen.