What a week! Piratesmas was postponed because of the terrible weather forecast and then covid finally caught me. Thankfully, the former has been rescheduled and the latter, while annoying in the extreme, has not been severe although it has meant a few days recuperating in bed. Today, however, I was able to get up and dressed and to spend some time in the garden with the dog.
The Wing Commander, who has avoided my covid, had a game of golf lined up for today so I had the house to myself, an unusual event since the pandemic began. I took the opportunity to choose a film to watch which I knew he would be unlikely to be interested in. I decided on The Viceroy’s House, a 2017 film but one I had not previously been aware of.
On the one hand it had a stellar cast, with Hugh Bonneville and Gillian Anderson supported by Michael Gambon and Simon Callow among many others. All are great actors who are generally well worth watching. On the other hand it was based on the granting of Indian independence and the partition of the country, a period and nation I know too little about.
The historical setting is laced with a love story across the religious divide of India. Sadly neither the able cast , the drama nor the love story can raise this film much above mediocre. The political intrigue, colonial attitudes and civil tensions should make for a better entertainment than The Viceroy’s House can muster sadly. Perhaps it needed more time than the 1 hour 45 minutes to unfold the enormity of the events or perhaps it was too big in scope to ever give justice to the tragedy that unfolded.
Give it a watch if you want to fill a couple of hours but don’t expect great drama or history
Significantly Different 