Johnson struggles to find the proper tone: the serial murders aren’t horrible enough to be funny, and the characters don’t respond as if they’re horrible at all. As a result the black humor thins into gray fog.

| Jun 23, 2022

The Ealing of yore is gone, and Guiness, ex-ladykiller, is now and forever, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Here's mud in your eye.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 30, 2006

A dark comedy that isn't dark or particularly funny, Keeping Mum ends up being an exercise in heavy-handed whimsy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 26, 2006

Bracket out the ethical concerns of making merry as the body count mysteriously rises and Keeping Mum is an endearing hoot.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 13, 2006

It's probably one of the funniest films to come out of England in years.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2006

Smith is an absolute delight, exuding grandmotherly warmth even as she's picking her next target.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 5, 2006

The few smiles the picture generates are overcome by the revulsion of some truly disgusting deeds.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 29, 2006

Those fond of films set in quaint, remote British towns (this one's named Little Wallup), or really any film in which the divine Smith purses her lips, will find much to enjoy here.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 29, 2006

It's always a treat to watch Maggie Smith up to her old scene-stealing tricks.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 29, 2006

As we wait in anticipation and wait, and wait, what initially appears as subtle humour gradually emerges as very little humour at all.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 29, 2006

Smith, along with the rest of the cast, rises above and turns the thinly scripted dark comedy into an amusing and enjoyable British romp.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 29, 2006

The screenplay by the novelist Richard Russo and Niall Johnson, who directed, is half hearted and too casual to be rousing. You're desperate for a surprise.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 29, 2006

Keeping Mum has an agreeably twisted plot that's compromised throughout by leaden pacing and a fatal attack of the cutes.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 29, 2006

The actors all strike just the right tone to carry off the black comedy.

Full Review | Sep 29, 2006

Where Ealing comedies used to have full command of irony, Keeping Mum is weirdly clueless.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 28, 2006

Saves its best for last -- and God bless Maggie Smith for, well, being Maggie Smith -- but that requires sitting through a frustrating, uneven hour of sluggish preamble.

| Sep 28, 2006

No heavy lifting here (except for a few stiff bodies), but Keeping Mum has a macabre merriment about it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 28, 2006

Not even such wily scene-thieves as Smith and Atkinson can salvage much of the silliness.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 28, 2006

Dame Maggie is waggish as a mad housekeeper who finds final solutions to one family's domestic problems, and it's fun to watch swanlike Kristin Scott Thomas pretend to be a frumpy vicar's wife.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 20, 2006

Director Niall Johnson and his co-writer, Richard Russo, have shrewd eyes for quaint British mannerisms and keen ears for the eddies of their curious speech patterns.

Full Review | Sep 20, 2006