The Duke

The Duke may superficially seem like old hat, but in its comfortable ways there’s still a strong message.

A charming, understated and completely enjoyable frolic about how ordinary people can do extraordinary things that seems doubly startling because, while seeming implausible, it also happens to be absolutely true.

It’s a daft, lovely story, and it opens up like a flower – the final half hour is deeply and unexpectedly moving.

[The Duke] sometimes gets overly sentimental and rose-colored about its “simpler” early 60s milieu, but Broadbent more than carries this homage to the triumph of a little man.

This messing around with chronology could feel manipulative if the stakes of "The Duke" were higher but, instead, it's like each revelation is a little gift.

The Duke is appealing and wayward, too, if also given to both slickness (split screens? really?) and more than a dollop of sentimentality.

Thanks to [Broadbent's] performance — and the note-perfect direction of the late, great Roger Michell — a quirky footnote of history becomes a sweet, unexpectedly moving story about solidarity and the power of the underdog.

A true story about a elder who steals a painting in order to help others, demonstrating the philosophy of ubuntu.


Broadbent is absolutely wonderful and gives his best performance in many years.

English comedies seem to have more than their share of eccentric characters in the very distinct British style of humor. Here, British actor Jim Broadbent fills the bill perfectly, playing a real life British eccentric, Kempton Bunton.