It was interesting watching Mike Leigh (whose last two films, "Career Girls" and "Secrets and Lies" had an intense focus on the lives of "ordinary" working-class people) take on the task of expounding on the larger-than-life legends of comic opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, without losing his special gift for being able to peel open his protagonists in front of us. Large or small, it makes no difference, Mike Leigh knows how to make movies!
In its depiction of the seamy underbelly of the theater world, it reminded me no small amount of "An Awfully Big Adventure", a 1995 film most memorable for Hugh Grant playing the heavy, in which a young innocent, taken with the theater world is somewhat deceived and disillusioned. But Mike Leigh does it better, not only without making us hate the characters, or the world they live in, but bringing us to root for them and appreciate their triumphs.
I'm not a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, or of comic operas, or of musical theater particularly, but it didn't matter. I had a good time anyway. Mike Leigh brings us a well-written story, with plenty of drama and personality and comedy of its own. The Mikado is just a little bonus, if you happen to like that sort of thing.
In its depiction of the seamy underbelly of the theater world, it reminded me no small amount of "An Awfully Big Adventure", a 1995 film most memorable for Hugh Grant playing the heavy, in which a young innocent, taken with the theater world is somewhat deceived and disillusioned. But Mike Leigh does it better, not only without making us hate the characters, or the world they live in, but bringing us to root for them and appreciate their triumphs.
I'm not a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, or of comic operas, or of musical theater particularly, but it didn't matter. I had a good time anyway. Mike Leigh brings us a well-written story, with plenty of drama and personality and comedy of its own. The Mikado is just a little bonus, if you happen to like that sort of thing.