William Oldroyd's LADY MACBETH expands to South Florida theaters (and elsewhere)

Clearly setting most critics aflame with its rather eerie-if-cornball combo of sex and violence coupled to concerns of class, race, patriarchy and the use of power, LADY MACBETH, the first full-length film to be directed by legit theater fellow, William Oldroyd, and adapted by Alice Birch (from an original story by Nicolai Leskov), turns out to be an interesting enough look at the above themes, if finally a fairly shallow and and not very trenchant exploration of them. What begins as a low-key and unsettling view of the life of an oddly-if-interestingly "abused" young woman, who is sold into marriage, slowly and equally quietly evolves into a tale of revenge, unbridled lust and multiple murder.

It's all quite fun. And ugly. The former for awhile, the latter throughout. This is as much due to the ability of Mr. Oldroyd (the filmmaker is shown at left) and his cinematographer Ari Wegner to compose the frame -- while using lighting and color in such clever ways that, at times, you might think you were viewing a Vermeer -- as to the fine acting from his new-found star, Florence Pugh, shown above and below, who handles herself with surprising precision and resolve.

The remainder of Oldroyd's cast fills the bill nicely, too. The characters here are inseparable from their time period and place: a 19th Century rural England in which patriarchy rules all with a nastily iron hand and not a trace of any glove, velvet or otherwise.

Therefore our "heroine," Katherine, finds herself trapped in a not-only loveless marriage, but one in which she is ordered about like chattel and expected to act as servant in almost as many respects as the household's actual servants, which include a maid or two and the male workers on her husband and father-in-law's estate. (In fact, all of them seem to have more freedom than does our poor Katherine.)

As we witness her ordeal, our sympathy goes out to the young bride again and again, until at last she takes the reins and proves so powerful, vicious and unstoppable that a certain amount of credibility flies out the window, even as the behavior of others so conforms to her needs that events grow a tad too coincidental for comfort. (That's Cosmo Jarvis, above, right, who plays the hot young hired hand with whom Kathrine falls in lust.)

By the bleak finale, we're left to consider the uses and abuses of power, as well as a hierarchy that places the while male in charge and the white female next in line, with the servant class far down the chart, and those servants of color on the very bottom rung (at which point they seem all too willing to sacrifice themselves silently, if not gladly). Yes, it's fun times.

Is this the way of the world back then? What about now? How much has changed? All these questions bubble to the surface over the course of the film, and that bubbling proves just fine. I only wish the movie did not seem quite so cast in stone, with each character and/or event offering nary a surprise along the way. Lady Macbeth is powerful all right, but as quiet, elegant and precise as is Oldroyd/Birch's adaptation, it's also sledge-hammer obvious.

From Roadside Attractions and running a sleek 89 minutes, the movie -- after opening in major cities around the country -- hits South Florida (and elsewhere) this Friday. In our area, look for it in Miami at the AMC Aventura 24, Regal South Beach 18 and The Landmark at Merrick Park . In Fort Lauderdale it opens at The Classic Gateway Theatre, and in West Palm Beach at the AMC CityPlace 20, and in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters and Regal Shadowood 16, and at The Movies of Delray. On August 4, The Movies of Lake Worth will be added to this mix.

The Ab-Fabbers are back, this time in ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: THE MOVIE

The popular British TV series Absolutely Fabulous, which had a twenty-year run (not bad!) during the era in which our last century slithered into this one, was a lot of fun and rather set the current stage for gals behaving badly. The product of writer and star Jennifer Saunders, with the help of costar Joanna Lumley, it deservedly captured the fancy of folk on both sides of the pond. Now, four years after the demise of that series (in Britain, at least; it may have ended earlier here in the USA), the movie version, long talked about and/or in gestation, arrives.

And? TrustMovies found it pretty good and often very funny, if a little too gassy and taking too much time to get airborne. I resisted for awhile, thinking, "What? All this again?" But then at some point I let out a loud laugh, began chucking at the antics of these two women -- Edina (Ms Saunders) and Patsy (Ms Lumley) -- and by movie's end was thoroughly satisfied that my humor quotient had been met for the day. The director here is a woman named Mandie Fletcher (shown at left) who helmed several of the TV episodes and so was evidently tapped by Ms Saunders and maybe the producers to direct the film -- which she has managed to do quite serviceably.

The setting this time out is the current world of fashion, which is shown us as mostly a hotbed of silliness and stupidity. Edina (below, left), who hopes to land a book deal for her memoirs (what she submits to the publisher is pretty funny) but is rejected, then moves her goal to doing PR for the fashion set.

Ms Lumley (above, right) plays her usual hanger-on, providing drugs alcohol and other fun stuff. But the ladies are down to their last pound -- even if they are living in a modern mansion well beyond their means.

Series regulars like Julia Sawalha (as Edina's straight-laced daughter) show up, along with "secretary" Bubbles (Jane Horrocks, above, left) and Edina's mother (June Whitfield, above, right) -- with the latter two barely used except as a kind of reminder of the fun we once had.

So the movie belongs, and rightly so, to Saunders and Lumley, the latter of whom seems to hang back and be used for the usual only -- until a little over halfway along, when she comes into her own with a delightfully goofy impersonation that will keep a grin plastered on your face for the remainder of the movie.

The film owes its ending to the great Some Like It Hot but the homage/steal is good enough to please fans of both films. We get currently posh-if-squalid London and the French Riviera as locations, plus Ms Sawalha doing Karaoke in a gay club (above), and a bunch of cameos from folk we love (or maybe used to) such as Joan Collins and Barry Humphries (above) -- plus a few new surprise personalities, as well.

As it is set in the fashion world, we get our fill of "fashion" faces, too. Kate Moss (above) is used for beauty and fun, good-naturedly putting herself through the wringer for our gals. And none other than Jean-Paul Gautier (below) makes an ironic appearance as a old beachcomber-type fellow searching for coins and other precious metals in the beachside sand.

A word must also be said for one of the most beautiful new faces to light up the screen in some time -- that of Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness (shown below, left), the lovely young girl with a mouthful of a name, making her screen debut as the Saunders character's granddaughter, Lola.

So, yes, you can expect to have a good time at this current rendition of Ab/Fab. It's not great art but it is (mostly, at least) good, silly fun.

From Fox Searchlight and running a thankfully lean and let's-not-outstay-our-welcome 90 minutes, the movie opens nationwide this Friday, July 22. Click here (then scroll waaaaay down to the bottom to find the theaters nearest you.