Allelujah (Jennifer Saunders, 2022)
Allelujah is a British comedy drama about the geriatric ward of a Yorkshire hospital, that is threatened with closure due to government cutbacks on the NHS.
Staff and patients fight back, with the help of a local television crew. But will it be enough?
Allelujah has a lot going for it. It is directed by Richard Eyre, who was responsible the rather marvelous adaptation of Zoë Heller’s novel Notes on a Scandal (2006), starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.
Allelujah also stars Dench in a relatively small role, as well as some of the finest British actors around - including the legendary Derek Jacobi - while Bally Gill and Jennifer Saunders play central roles as the wards beloved Doctor Valentine and Sister Gilpin. The latter giving an especially commanding performance.
It is based on a play by the also great Alan Bennett, whose The Lady in the Van was adapted by Stephen Frears (another one of my favorites). And Allelujah is adapted for the screen by Heidi Thomas, who created popular tv series Call The Midwife.
So there are plenty of reasons to want to go and see it. And yet, despite its typically British charm and fine filmmaking qualities, the movie is a bit of an odd duck that I don’t quite know what to make of.
On the one hand it is a heartfelt paen to the British medical services and its tireless workers, who put the well being of their patients before anything else, and in that sense it is also an attack on the systemic cutbacks on the National Health Service (NHS), one of Britain’s greatest treasures.
But there is a second layer which seems to say that when you reach that late stage in life where you spend most of your time in and out of hospital, your playing days are over and you’re basically fucked til you finally transfer out of here.
To add to that, there is also a ‘ripped from the headlines’ twist in the final stretch, which makes Allelujah a lot darker than I thought it was going to be.
I don’t think the twist quite works, as it undercuts at least some of what has come before.
Still, as someone who watches a lot of movies, it’s nice to be thrown off-guard for a change.
And it does give you something to talk about in the bar or café afterwards.
Note: Since its release in the UK last year, Allelujah has been out in a fair number of countries, with more to follow.