Drama

Allelujah

BBC Film

Ingenious Media

Redstart Productions

DJ Films

Great Bison Productions

Pathe

United Kingdom

English

Jennifer Saunders

Bally Gill

David Bradley

Russell Tovey

Derek Jacobi

Judi Dench

JP Conway

Jesse Akele

Lorraine Ashbourne

Nivedita Bhargava

Nicholas Burns

Paul Butterworth

Eileen Davies

Nishu Dikshit

Patricia England

Vincent Franklin

Gerard Horan

Catherine Jayes

Rajinder Kaur

Harsheen Kaur

Jeffery Kissoon

Julia McKenzie

Arian Nik

Amanda Root

Louis Ashbourne Serkis

Rhea Sharma

Marlene Sidaway

Ross Tomlinson

Marjorie Yates

Dawn Batty

Jessica Baglow

Ray Burnet

Darren Charman

Minouche Kaftel

Dennis O'Donnell

Linus Scheithauer

Alfredo Tavares

Jon Wennington

Alan Bennett

Naomi Donne

Rose Garnett

Jenny Borgars

Andrea Scarso

Donal Woods

Damian Jones

Cameron McCracken

Nicholas Hytner

Ben Smithard

Richard Eyre

Heidi Thomas

Kevin Loader

George Fenton

Kirsty Leigh Graham

Nina Gold

Charles Moore

Glen Gathard

Nicola Morrow

Chloe Gibbs

Alex Stylianou

John Wilson

Dominic Lawrence

Robert Searl

Rebecca Heathcote

Martin Ware

Paul Grindey

Tony Sankey

Linda Wilson

Ian Morgan

Andrea Cracknell

Jacqueline Durran

CinemaSerf

When a small geriatric hospital in Northern England is threatened with closure, the staff and patients rally together to try and save it. There might be a glimmer of hope with this task as the government consultant tasked with the final evaluation - "Colin" (Russell Tovey) has his estranged father " Joe" (David Bradley) in that self same facility. The place is run under the benignly imperious hand of "Sister Gilpin" (Jennifer Saunders) with Bally Gill's "Dr. Valentine" tending to their clinical needs. As you'd expect with Alan Bennett, this comes at you from the left of the political spectrum, and highlights what he sees as the short-termism of fiscally based decision making. To that end, Sir Richard Eyre has assembled a strong cast of formidable character actors to portray the patients. Most notable amongst them, for me, was Julia McKenzie and Bradley is also on great form as the curmudgeonly old gent coming to terms with his predicament and his successful, gay, son. There is plenty of dry humour, observational sarcasm to the fore and Saunders and Gill have quite a nice chemistry between them as they both strive to care for their elderly charges. I can't say that I loved the ending. It is thought provoking, but somehow seemed just a little over-dramatic and unnecessary. That said, though, the ensemble cast reminded me very much "Quartet" (2012) with strong leading characters and familiar faces at every turn helping to highlight the serious (and lighter) issues of the ageing process for both the older folks and for those charged with keeping them well. Not sure it really needs a cinema to enjoy, but it's still well worth ninety minutes.

Best Movies

Allelujah

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Jennifer Saunders

Bally Gill

David Bradley

Russell Tovey

Derek Jacobi

Judi Dench

JP Conway

Jesse Akele

Lorraine Ashbourne

Nivedita Bhargava

Box office

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