Synopsis
Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.
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Cast
- Judi DenchQueen Victoria
- Ali FazalAbdul Karim
- Tim Pigott-SmithSir Henry Ponsonby
- Eddie IzzardBertie, Prince of Wales
- Adeel AkhtarMohammed
- Michael GambonLord Salisbury
- Paul HigginsDr. James Reid
- Olivia WilliamsBaroness Churchill
- Fenella WoolgarMiss Phipps
- Julian WadhamAlick Yorke
Recommendations
- 80
Empire
A sorta-sequel to Mrs Brown deals effectively with another of Queen Victoria’s unconventional friendships and reprises Judi Dench’s powerful and unparalleled portrayal. - 80
Total Film
This funny, touching adap of Shrabani Basu’s 2010 biography has its own chemistry, withering wit and unsentimental message of acceptance. A royal treat. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Fine performances from a cast of pros generally win out over the story's more formulaic aspects. - 67
The Playlist
Victoria & Abdul is a movie that flirts with exploring prejudice, cultural tension, power, and religion, but never really consummates the ideas. At best, it tries to humorously dismantle the absurdity of empires and royalty, but that’s about as subversive as it gets. - 60
Screen Daily
The film’s lavish production values and a comic register more impish than truly acerbic makes this a surprisingly cosy piece of luxury heritage cinema. - 60
The Telegraph
Frears’ film is all nostalgia and inertia – a tale ablaze with historical import and contemporary resonance, reduced to commemorative biscuit tin proportions. - 50
TheWrap
There’s not much to Victoria & Abdul, but as a delivery system for Judi Dench, it serves its purpose. Otherwise, it’s just Buckingham Palace fetishism cranked up to peak mumsy. - 42
IndieWire
Victoria & Abdul is an otherwise benignly toothless, pleasantly glossy affair, but it does force us to confront one tricky question: When treating a subject as fraught as British imperial rule, when does a film’s benign inoffensiveness become offensive in and of itself?
