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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

"Victoria and Abdul" centre around two people madly in love with each other while keeping it platonic and showing that love is not necessarily a physical thing but more affectionate emotion one has to the other. In this case it's on Queen Victoria and an Indian Muslim subject whom both seem to have a great connection for one another that was based on actual events under the direction of Stephen Frears and scriptwriter Lee Hall. Although the intentions were good in the making of the movie, it's still overwrought with stuffiness, lack of coherency and looking to find the right genre of the film. It can't decide if it wants to be a drama or a comedy. The drama level is on par with Queen Victoria's personnel along with the angst and irritability regarding the bonding between her majesty and this Indian servant. But the leading performances successfully managed to build a strong relationship even through the hostile intensity.Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal) is an Indian servant living under the British crown and government. He is a commoner who's responsible for taking logs at a local prison. He becomes a presence to the Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) only due to his tallness and was told never to make eye contact with her. The one powerful Victoria is now in her 80's, bordering on senility, she's pudgy, and has become sick to death with the routines and the demands that has been part of most of her life. She eats in an uncouth manner and has lost a lot of etiquette and sleeps during important meetings. When Abdul offers her the gift for her, she gets awestruck by his handsome visage. She demands that he stays with her for a while and be by her side. She is also fascinated by his culture. His physical well being helps rectify her vitality while her close associates become infuriated by the day.The movie is a tale of two individuals who are not entire disconnected from one each other and relies on two plots. The first being the Queen's restoring of faith within the palace due to Abdul and the second being the people who are upset about this whole ordeal. The transformation from light comedy to darker territories can be quite revolting, though its still in conjunction to the development of the script but feels very indecisive in its direction to where it wants to go. The queen is in this stage in her life where everything to her seems pointless and once Abdul enters her life her energy is restored again like it was some miracle and that the subjects think it's all a phase and that she'll eventually lose interest in him. But the conflict in that assumption falls very flat. It has its moments of charm and a few areas of surrealism as well like in the second the primary focus is on Victoria's demands from the physicians to check out Abdul and his wife as to why she can't reproduce which falls in very dark and heavy-handed scenes. The film may spark some interest, but the awkward pacing and narrative will likely get you flabbergasted.When it comes to the technical aspects like the production design is brilliantly nuanced. The settings and location are visually stunning, the film does have that authentic look like you're stepping into 19th century England. The costumes were very fit for the period and the diversity that comes with the package is quite sublime. Frears' direction seems to be in confident hands with a combination of splendor and intimacy. In terms of lightness the chemistry between Victoria and Abdul is very adaptable and we can feel the passion one has for each other. However, the dark clouds reign here as well as the subject matter becomes overwhelmingly heavy. The performances were universally excellent. Judi Dench may have overdone makeup, but still generates a complex role quite flawlessly as she's plays senile while also displaying a light role mixed with darker and heavier themes. Ali Fazal show great depth in his role as the humble, lovable servant and shows that underneath all her majestic powers, he knows she's still human like the rest of us and knows she can find a friend in him."Victoria and Abdul" succeeds in many areas like acting, sets, costumes and production design. The direction of where it wants to go gets lost and though the first two acts were light in comedy, it turns to a more jarring, darker third act. I would recommend it to those who love period pieces and fans who of Judi Dench in these type of roles.

Abdul Karim and a colleague are imported from India to make a presentation to Queen Victoria. Long after Prince Albert and her friend John Brown died, the Queen is old, tired, depressed and bored, and the introduction of the Indian piques her interest: he becomes a Court favourite to the consternation and annoyance of her Head of Household, the Prime Minster, and her son and first in line for the throne. The film tells of their relationship and the background politicking against Karim up to Victoria's death and Karim's return to India.This film is, in many ways, a sequel to Mrs Brown, Judi Dench's 1997 first entry as Queen Victoria and, in some respects, treads similar ground as regards a friendship regarded by some as "inappropriate." This one is quite funny - the audience was frequently chuckling.The script is good and the cast are excellent with, of course Dench on particularly good form as the aged monarch. The story is true - "mostly", as it says at the start - and, if so, the behaviour of certain individuals after Victoria's death is reprehensible.Showings at my local (Isle of Wight) cinema were packed, what with location filming taking place at Victoria's holiday hideaway at Osborne House on the Island, and reactions from the mostly elderly audience were very positive. And I enjoyed it very much despite it not being my type of film.

Did Queen Victoria, head of the church of England, defender of the Christian faith, die in her sins?According to the movie Victoria and Abdul she did exactly that. In her death bed scene there is no Arch Bishop of Canterbury and no mention of Christ or Christianity. In their place is a Sufi Muslim quoting from Rumi with the implied view that Muslims are a peaceful folk and that Victoria died a Muslim with no savior.The movie could have been a good one with superb acting by Judi Dench and many light-hearted and funny scenes but it was flawed by the politically correct author, director, producers, and screen writer who want to push their anachronistic/pc views through a period piece.What a shame that these kind of movies always have to be flawed by faulty worldviews that seem to be always anti-Christian and anti-Western.

While the acting here is very fine, particularly that of Julie Dench as the old queen, the plot is weakened by two very contrary cliches around which the entire story revolves.First, the cliche, and all chiches are partly true or they would not have become cliches, first the notion that the British in the Victorian period were racist about colored people even though Britain had millions of them in their African and Indian possessions. The hostility towards Abdul the Muslim Indian companion of the old queen was shared by the royal family, especially by the future Edward VII (Bertie) and by the staff in the palace who took care of the queen's every need. They felt insulted by the presence of an Indian colored man in their neighborhood and tried to coerce the queen into letting him leave. The second cliche is that of the alleged immense philosophical wisdom and religious insight of the Indians, no matter how lowly their origins. The queen regards every word out of the mouth of Abdul as brilliant, philosophical, and worthy of deep respect. Of course the west has long been misled by the apparent religiosity of the Indians, but these were always Hindus not Muslims and Abdul is a Muslim. This become relevant later on in the plot, but the notion that Indian Muslims, the lowest of the low after the fall of the Mughal empire, were worthy of respect for their thought is ridiculous. So here we have the typical western attraction in the person of the queen for Indian thought. Yes, India is the most religious country in the world; it is also the most dirty, the most dismal, and the poorest. Sensible westerners do not stand awestruck by Indian thought, which is usually self-righteous and oblivious to the real faults of Indian culture. You can admire the Taj Mahal, as Abdul urges the queen to do, but there is much more to India than a couple of beautiful palaces. The story is interesting to be sure but the two major cliches make it in the end rather less than worthwhile. Edward VII comes off very badly; he was not a bad bloke, he just got tired of wating for the queen to die and for him to become king. Charles Prince of Wales today is in exactly the same position, but Queen Elizabeth is not foolish enough to become enamored of some Indian fellow with alleged wisdom. She is probably more queenly than Victoria.