Directed by Roger Michell
Written by Richard Bean, Clive Coleman
Starring Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead
Rated R for language and brief sexuality
Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
In select theaters April 22

by Fiona Underhill, Contributor

The early 1960s were a tumultuous time for British political and criminal scandals, from the Profumo Affair (watch The Trial of Christine Keeler on HBO Max), to the Argyll divorce case (which can currently be seen dramatized in A Very British Scandal on Prime Video), to the Great Train Robbery of 1963 (which the 1988 film Buster is based on) and the antics of the Kray Twin gangsters (their story was turned into movies in both 1990 and 2015). If like me, you have an interest in this period of history, as well as in art heists (both the 60s and 90s versions of The Thomas Crown Affair make it seem like an exciting and glamorous world), you will be extremely enticed by Roger Michell’s final film The Duke.

Michell has an eclectic filmography, from one of the best 90s rom-coms Notting Hill, to the Ben Affleck thriller Changing Lanes, to the underrated newsroom comedy Morning Glory, to the gothic mystery-thriller My Cousin Rachel. He has ensembled another stellar cast for The Duke, with Jim Broadbent starring as aspiring playwright Kempton Bunton, Helen Mirren as his long-suffering wife Dorothy, and Dunkirk’s Fionn Whitehead as their son Jackie.

Bunton has odd jobs as a taxi driver and baker, but struggles to hold them down as he usually ends up clashing with his bosses. He is a socialist with strong ideas about the government, and has a particular bee in his bonnet about the BBC television license, which he believes should be free for pensioners – something that would go on to happen years later. He regularly submits his plays to the BBC in the hope that they will make it to radio or television, but is met with rejection. His most recent work is his most personal – inspired by the grief and guilt he feels over his daughter’s death in a bicycle accident.

When he sees on his TV (but not on the BBC, which he refuses to watch as a protest) that the government has spent £140,000 acquiring a Goya portrait of the Duke of Wellington for the National Gallery, he becomes enraged by what he sees as a waste of money that is sorely needed elsewhere. And in August 1961 he travels to London and steals the portrait, returning with it to his home in Newcastle, where he would keep it hidden in a wardrobe for the next four years. Bunton has a strained relationship with his wife, who works hard as a cleaner, and he can’t possibly let her in on his secret. He does involve his son Jackie, however. 

It's good to see Whitehead getting a fairly meaty role after what should have been a star-making turn in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. Jackie clearly hero-worships his father and is the only one Kempton can talk to about the loss of his daughter. Broadbent and Mirren are both reliably excellent, and it is Broadbent’s charm that is central to the film’s success. He dials it up to eleven during the trial, in which Bunton’s quick wit has the court rolling with laughter as if at a vaudeville show. Unfortunately, great actors such as Matthew Goode, James Wilby and John Heffernan only have small roles to play in the trial, as does Anna Maxwell Martin, as Dorothy Bunton’s employer. It would have been good if they all had more to do here.

The film is let down somewhat by a twist ending that pulls the rug out from under the audience, but we are not given enough time to process or digest the new information. Two central characters have different versions of the theft, and both ended up making separate confessions to the police at different times. It would have been really interesting to have seen the film play around much more with truth and lies. The film could almost have been in two halves, with us being presented with both versions and deciding which one we believe. Given that it’s based on a true story, but no one is a hundred per cent certain about who was actually behind the theft, the possibilities for a much more creative approach, with a layered narrative could have been fascinating. It’s frustrating that the alternative version of events is introduced at the end as an after-thought, when it should have been present much earlier and would have made for a more memorable story.

While British period films and television shows are dime-a-dozen, international audiences are more used to experiencing the upper crust in things like The Crown and Downton Abbey. Therefore, a period film that deals with working class characters and actually has a protagonist attempting to wrestle with social issues and effect change is refreshing. Naming the movie The Duke feels like a mistake, as it will be viewed as safe, cozy British fare that’s as exciting as a tepid cup of tea or a stodgy sponge pudding. This little-known true story did have the potential to make for an interesting movie, but the execution is a little botched. It’s definitely still worth watching for Broadbent and Whitehead, however, and it’s a shame we won’t get to see which genre Michell would have veered off into next.