By James Murphy
Director Richard Eyre re-unites with Iris’ Dame Judy Dench for another unflinching exploration of the realities of old age in Allelujah!, an adaptation of a 2018 Alan Bennett play, starring Jennifer Saunders, Russell Tovey, and an ensemble of elderly actors who revel in their geriatric ward banter. Allelujah! brings to the big screen experiences and themes that we often prefer not to see, that we shut away in nursing homes; it is a memento mori, a stark reminder that regardless of our life’s grand achievements, we are unified in our mortality; that there will come a time where all we will have is the people who care for us and, if we are lucky (or unlucky) our memories.
An ageing and underfunded hospital, The Beth, presided over by the cleanliness obsessed Sister Gilpin (Jennifer Saunders) and the caring Dr Valentine (Bally Gill) is the setting for Allelujah! After decades of White Hall cuts, all that remains of the hospital is a pair of geriatric wards, populated by a colourful array of patients, including Judy Dench’s reclusive retired librarian Mary, distinguished former English teacher Ambrose, played with dignity and grace by acclaimed Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi and grizzled former coal miner Joe Colman, played by Game of Thrones and Harry Potter’s David Bradley, who brags about his son, played by Russell Tovey, a management consultant currently engaged by the Health Secretary to advise on efficiency measures.
Allelujah! features myriad conflicts: minor squabbles between patients on the wards, a lifetime of brewing resentments between patients and their children and the central conflict between hospital staff, management and volunteers and White Hall, who want to shut the hospital down. The arrival of a film crew, hired to promote the hospital’s plight, an impending ceremony in honour of Sister Gilpin, and Colman’s son’s return from London to visit his dad serve to bring the hospital’s secrets to light.
Allelujah! is funny and poignant in equal measure and, like a death bed revelation, saves its biggest punches until the end. Some components, though, like Dr Valentines monologues and fourth wall breaking, do feel heavy handed and unnatural; at times the film plays like a NHS political ad. It is laudable that the work sends the message that public health staff have always been heroes, not just during a pandemic. It was not, though, necessary to tell the audience this, when the truth of these sentiments was more than adequately conveyed by the actions of most of the hospital’s staff. Saunders, Jacobi, Dench and Bradley deliver standout performances. Anger, a call for action, permeates the work, which will remind a society that is all too eager to move on from the pandemic that our health systems remain broken, and in need of repair.
Allelujah is now screening at Palace Nova Eastend and Palace Prospect cinemas.
Four and a Half Stars.
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