At The Movies: Mr Blake At Your Service
This is a simply delightful, feel-good French movie – despite John Malkovich playing the leading role (he speaks really good French)!
He plays the role of Andrew Blake, a highly successful British businessman who boycotts his own awards ceremony and decides to revisit the past. Still grieving the loss of his wife four months earlier, he returns to the place where they first met at the Domaine de Beauvillier estate. He is in for a massive let-down though when he learns that the rooms are no longer rented out and he is mistaken as an applicant for the butler position!
The head housekeeper, Odile (Émilie Dequenne) gives him a room – still believing he applied for the job – and demands an early rise to start work. It is then that she discovers his real reason for being there, but since the owner Nathalie Beauvillier (Fanny Ardant) is not allowing guest, he is told to leave. After his pleading, Odile comes up with a plan which will allow him to stay for a while – pretending to be the butler for a “trial period”.
He soon learns that all residents at the run-down manse, including Mephisto the cat, are also suffering from emotional losses or heartache and that he is not alone. He asks probing questions to all of them to get to the root causes of their issues – frequently getting told not to forget that he is only a butler and to mind his own business. Keeping up the façade is a struggle, especially when he learns that Nathalie is on the verge of losing her beloved estate. She has struggled financially since the death of her husband four years earlier.
Blake suffers all sorts of treatments not becoming a well-to-do British gentleman – cleaning, repair work, being shot at to mention but a few. The whole storyline is quite captivating and there is a lot of subtle humour throughout to keep a smile on your face. As mentioned above – it really makes you feel good. Normally I am not a fan of having to read subtitles as it feels like I miss so much of what is happening visually. It didn’t feel like that with Mr Blake At Your Service!
Movie Review by John Glennie
Screening for the French Film Festival at Palace Cinemas
Rating: PG
Runtime: 110 minutes
