The pinnacle of British humour. Very dark humour. Two brilliant actresses – Kristin Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith – only add to the overall picture. The film markets itself as a family movie… but I wouldn’t recommend watching it with your actual family.

I quite enjoyed watching Keeping Mum…excellent cast, quite amusing at times and a few twists & turns. Didn’t quite expect the ending…very clever. Would have got 5 stars had it not been for the use of the f word several times in the first half.

This fun and entertaining movie from almost 20 years ago boasts a stellar cast that in lesser hands may not have been as enjoyable. With 2024 being such a bomb year for movies, Critics who wrote a negative review were way off the mark as the is a must see movie.

Not remotely fun or interesting.

Can't think of a better combination than Rowan Atkinson and Maggie Smith. Absolutely hilarious.

Kristin Scott Thomas and Rowan Atkinson star as the parents of the Goodfellow family, a typical nuclear family living in an English village and trying to come to terms with a variety of family issues. When Grace (Maggie Smith), a woman with a murderous past, shows up as the new housekeeper, the problems experienced by the family mysteriously and permanently disappear. Keeping Mum is filled with black comedy, the majority of it very effective thanks to a clever script and sound performances from the three lead actors. Despite a music score that sounds like it from a sitcom and the fact that it feels like it's slipping into slapstick towards the end, it's a pretty enjoyable film with a surprising and enjoyable twist in the final act.

Very good: Plot, Acting and Characters, Score, Pace, Dialogue. Good: Themes and Tones, Direction, Produciton Design, Special Effects, Editng. Fair: Cinematography. Poor: x

A family that's lost its spark gets a new housekeeper, and she's got a history! The humor is delightfully witty, as it should be from a British movie, and the acting is a bit understated, which is a good thing!

*Spoilers ahead* Watched this over Christmas and New Year with the family. Some funny parts throughout but ultimately a middle-of-the-road British comedy. For a little-known British comedy, the cast is excellent. Rowan Atkinson is an undeniable comedic genius and plays Reverend Goodfellow with the right amount of uncertainty and bumble we are so used to seeing from him. As his character starts to turn to humour in his sermons (many jokes taken from the aptly named website 'God Jokes'), his enthusiasm for life increases tenfold, leading to an injection of spice into his previously sexless marriage His sex-starved wife, Gloria, played by the always excellent Kristen Scott Thomas, is the star of the show. She effortlessly blends together wittiness and exasperation, be it at her husband for the lack of intimacy or at her sex-crazed, rebellious daughter (played well by Tamsin Egerton) for the litany of unsuitable boyfriends she brings to their home. She is responsible for the funniest part of the film as well. As Gloria prepares to finally sleep with her greasy, orange, muscular golf instructor Lance (Patrick Swayze), after weeks of sexual tension, she is mortified when he reveals a large burgundy jock strap. Her reaction is as British as you could get. A very humourous scene. Grace (Maggie Smith), the mysterious housekeeper with the big secret, disappoints for me. Maybe it just was not different enough to a standard Maggie Smith performance (I know I'm in the minority here). Her mischievousness is fun, but her punishments are very disproportionate to the "crimes" committed by those in Little Wallop and I know it's fiction, but would you not conduct any sort of check on a housekeeper that is going to look after your two under-18 children? Even a pretty good look at a CV? Pretty shoddy due diligence if you ask me. I also find Swayze's performance to be quite cliched. This is not his fault, he's asked to basically accentuate all the stereotypical traits that people do not like about America (seen with his vanity, overly white teeth, overly loquaciousness, arrogance). To be fair to Swayze, I do find that American movies do the the same with Brits (why is every Brit obscenely posh?) He's not unfunny, but I felt he could have been a little less sterotypical. There could have been more scenes with the Goodfellow family all together, especially with Rowan Atkinson and Tamsin Egerton, I feel like their relationship dynamic was not explored enough and this could have led to some pretty funny scenes. Overall, a decent film that's inoffensive enough to please all members of the family, but is firmly planted in the lower echelons of British comedy.

The first half of the movie was kind of slow and boring, but it got really funny in the second half

One of my favorite movies ever. The acting in this movie is amazing - especially Kristin Scott Thomas. I like acting where the actor doesn't need to say anything; you can understand with just actions and facial expressions. The movie has delightful English humor and has great twists and play on words. A wonderful, cute movie.

Something I would consider a British classic. Witty, quaint and very funny. I don't understand why the critics were so harsh. Perhaps the wall between British and American humour is thicker than I thought...

Just love this movie

All it takes is a little "Grace" and all our problems are solved. Don't question God's mysterious ways. Just enjoy the benefits.

I liked this film. It was charming and not as 'dark' as far as I'm concerned as some others reviewing the film seemed to think. If this film is dark then I'm a Dutchman compared to thousands of other films. It was light hearted and fun....

Gloria's 'affair' with Lance is irritating rather than risque if it had ended up on the cutting room floor we'd end up with a better and funnier film. There's enough in the script to make you laugh without Lance's interest in Gloria. Between them the rest of the cast could have kept you chuckling all through the film, if not laughing out loud.

Even though it suffers from some clichés; like the vicar's wife being sexually unhappy, his daughter being a whore, and the only American in the movie being a sleazebag, at least it tries to make us understand the first issue, by blaming it on God. But well, I'm fine with a message that tells people to not have a stick up their ass just because they're religious. Can't say that's an non-existent issue. In general I have trouble respecting characters that cheat on their partner, and honestly, in most movies these kind of people are the "villain", but the movie handled this subject well enough. You won't fault the wife for her past decisions, but at the same time you have to wonder why couples never talk about this and instead cheat away. But since it was established that the vicar is rather slow, I guess a direct message would be wasted on him. Besides that, that religious stick is very much up his ass. An obvious invitation to intercourse has always been rejected. It's difficult to watch a movie with characters you know best from a different production; starring a mr. Bean-vicar and a murderous Hogwarts teacher, I enjoyed this movie. I thought it was well done and quite entertaining. Though, I still wonder about the plausability of the ending and the family's choice not to call the police on the old kook.

Great fun, great acting - but way too slow.

A verry funny Black comedy

Comédie noire sympathique.