Victoria & Abdul

Victoria & Abdul may capture the ugly side of Britain's colonial past, but its demeaning portrait of Abdul reinforces the Orientalism it purports to lampoon.

It's hard not to like Victoria & Abdul-but it's all shiny surfaces. I can't help but to wonder how much deeper Frears might've dug into this rich material had he directed it 20 years ago.

There's not a whole lot to Victoria & Abdul, but fans of stories about the royals should find their thirsts satisfied.

Dench is, of course, magnificent.

The film's attempt to portray the Queen as more politically enlightened than her courtiers is kindly but unconvincing, and many of the actors bark and behave as if participating in a spoof.

Victoria & Abdul is worth seeing for Dench's magisterial performance and for Frears's light but sure directorial touch. Just don't mistake it for actual history.

An endearing historical drama...

If the recent film mother! was an attempt, as one writer suggested, "to shock its audiences out of complacency," Victoria & Abdul is an attempt to lull its audience into complacency.

Victoria and Abdul exposes itself as being just as shallow as the bigots it derides; the only difference is the purity of its intentions.

It doesn't eventually ring true at all because the complexities of history and colonial oppression are beyond Victoria & Abdul.