Review: Absolutely Fabulous - The Movie
It's always a tricky prospect to bring beloved television characters to the big screen, so it's a huge sigh of relief to report that Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is a rip-roaring delight. That the film somehow manages to expand the show's studio settings without breaching the AbFab universe is remarkable. Applause to creator and star Jennifer Saunders for not only successfully maintaining the beloved sitcom's anarchic and irreverent spirit, but also keeping the film a very British affair.
The opening credits find the gruesome twosome of Edina (Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) arriving late at a Giles Deacon fashion show, nonchalantly walking the runway with the models before squeezing themselves into front row seats, then guzzling champagne and twerking backstage. When they wake up the next morning, they fix themselves up - Patsy nonchalantly injecting botox on her face and doing a bit of liposuction ("You need to be using fetus blood, a little spritz of afterbirth," she advises Edina) - before congregating in Edina's kitchen where Edina's mother (June Whitfield), now-divorced daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha) and Saffy's thirteen-year-old daughter Lola (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness) await to trade punchlines.
Panic and plot soon set in. Edina's PR firm is down to two clients (singers Lulu and Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton, both playing themselves), all her credit cards are "broken," an editor rejecting her autobiography ("blah blah blah" is written on most of its pages), and Patsy has taken to knocking back Chanel No. 5 due to the lack of champagne. When Patsy learns that Kate Moss is changing PR firms, Edina decides to make it her mission to land La Moss as her client. Naturally, things go well pear-shaped when Edina pushes Moss into the Thames, sending the nation into mass hysteria and mourning when the supermodel's body isn't found, and having to seek refuge amongst the Cannes jet set to avoid manslaughter charges and being "trollied on Twitter."
Structured shambles is the best way to describe Saunders' narratives, but the scattered nature of both the TV and film versions of Absolutely Fabulous has never been sloppy. "Because it's all good fun," Patsy replies when asked why she stays with Edina through the best and worst of times. And that's exactly why every pratfall and punchline, every cameo and sight gag, every daft and silly thing in Absolutely Fabulous works: because it's all good fun. Yet it also has an undercurrent of humanity. Edina delivers a monologue about how all she ever wanted in life was "to not be fat and keep the party going" that is all the more touching because she happens to be making this confession whilst crammed in a sinking fish-delivery van.
One of the main reasons that AbFab was so popular and still holds up to this day is because Edina and Patsy, sozzled and shallow as they were, are and shall always be, were strong and independent women who could be as badly behaved as their male counterparts. Their attempts to stay relevant in a world obsessed with youth and popular culture could be desperate, but at no point did the women seem pathetic. Indeed, women of all ages run the world in Absolutely Fabulous from models of the moment Suki Waterhouse and Jourdan Dunn to fashion designer Stella McCartney to diva extraordinaire Joan Collins.
Most of all, Absolutely Fabulous is a testament to female friendship and to the immense comic talents of its leading ladies.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
Directed by: Mandie Fletcher
Written by: Jennifer Saunders
Starring: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, June Whitfield, Jane Horrocks, Kathy Burke, Mo Gaffney, Celia Imrie, Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness, Mark Gatiss, Robert Webb, Christopher Ryan, Chris Colfer, Kate Moss, Joan Collins, Barry Humphries, Stella McCartney, Jerry Hall, Suki Waterhouse, Lily Cole, Jourdan Dunn, Jon Hamm, Gwendoline Christie
