Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)

Review

91min

Genre:     Comedy

Director:  Mandie Fletcher

Cast:       Joanna Lumley, Jennifer Saunders, Julia Sawalha…and more

Writer:    Jennifer Saunders

-Synopsis-

The hugely popular British TV comedy finally gets the big screen treatment as the legendarily ladies hop from the glitz of high society London to the glamour of the French Riviera after a celebrity scandal, now hounded by the media, they’re determined to make high-life living permanent with hilarious consequences.

Patsy & Edina are back!; after years of procrastination, Jennifer Saunders finally completes a long-awaited script and teams up again with Joanna Lumley to propel the outrageous, high-life living PR ladies into the 21st century, and despite the physical ravages of time, a quarter of a century certainly hasn’t dampened their irrepressible spirits.

If you were a fan of the classic irreverent British TV comedy, you’ll probably be pleased and there’s enough to cling onto here; most of the show’s quirky characters are back, including “Saffron” as the only sane character and irregular beating heart of the piece.

As with other recent comedy sequels; Saunders uses her comedy clout to wrangle together a cavalcade of famous cameos featuring the “good & the great” of fashion and celebrity culture, while stuffing all the excessive and outrageous behaviour you might expect into a 90 minute jet-setting, comedy/adventure farce.

But like most movie adaptations of TV sitcoms or series, much is lost in translation and too much added to the pot, with the result being very hit & miss. A series of gags about ageing and pop-culture stuffed into a silly narrative which becomes disjointed and less funny as the action goes international, and which now seems rather tame in a world of never-ending outrageous shock comedies.

Aside from a story of an unbreakable unconventional friendship, the core of ‘Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie’ is a satire which sends up the fashion industry and our celebrity obsessed culture, taking particular aim at laughable modern trends and political correctness… and that’s where it works best.

But ‘Ab Fab’  clearly eulogizes these pompous and vacuous industries as much as it satirizes them, painting a ludicrous but depressingly aspirational picture to a modern generation; ironically half of the film feels like a playful PR image campaign for pretentious and out-of-touch people, who would have you believe they can laugh at themselves.

The Bottom Line…

‘Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie’ manages to capture some of the classic TV show’s magic with the Jennifer Saunders genius occasionally shining through. But despite the return of two classic comedic characters and some genuinely funny early moments; this satire/farce comedy hybrid is too reliant on tedious pop-culture and a flaky narrative which peters out comedically, failing to break the curse of the TV show movie adaptation.

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