OCTOBER 29, 2018
The idea couldn’t be simpler. Seat four women of a certain age at a table, and pour the tea, then listen to them spill it.
These four dames in “Tea With the Dames,” directed by Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”) really are Dames, the female equivalent for British women as “Sir” is for men. All are legends in London’s theatrical world and achieved stardom in films and television as well. Dame Eileen Atkins won her Screen Actors Guild Award for glaring daggers at her sister (Helen Mirren) in Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park” (2001), Dame Joan Plowright earned her Tony Award in 1961 for the Broadway production of “A Taste of Honey,” Dame Judi Dench snagged her Academy Award for 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” one of seven Oscar nominations she has received and Dame Maggie Smith is, well…Maggie Smith.
When four such distinguished women get together for tea, you might expect a pinkies-up kind of afternoon. Not with this crew.
They begin turning on each other early. Dame Joan, who is now retired as she is losing her eyesight, recently spoke with her American agent who said, “Well, if you do want to come over again, we’ll look around for a nice little cameo that Judi Dench hasn’t got her paws on.”
And so it begins.
Actually, the four have been pals for decades and, schedules permitting, they meet every so often at the country home that Dame Joan shared with her late husband Laurence Olivier. As the head of Britain’s National Theater, Olivier had significant interactions with all four actresses. “We all found him tricky,” recalls Smith, “I think I scared the wits out of him from time to time.” I’ll bet she did. She recalls playing Desdemona opposite Olivier as Othello, who once slapped her across the face onstage for real. “It was the only time I ever saw stars at the National Theater.”
The most affecting portion of their memories are their recollections about working on the London stage. On overcoming stage fright, which they all still have, Atkins observes, “On the way to the theater, I always think: ‘Would I like to be run over in a massive car accident?’ And I only just about come out on the side of ‘No.’ ”
One role that vexed them all was Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra.” When she was offered the role, Dench asked director Peter Hall, “Are you sure you want a menopausal dwarf to play Cleopatra?” She accepted the part nonetheless. Atkins and Plowright were too afraid to take on the role, thinking that they were not attractive enough for a picky British audience. Smith shared that fear explaining, “That’s why I did it in Canada.” When Atkins observes that Alan Bates once told her that Cleopatra was much the better role in the play, Smith dryly retorts, “That’s because he wanted to play Cleopatra.”
Meow.
As much as I would love to continue to recall the film’s best one-liners (and believe me, I’ve just scratched the surface), there’s another tone that’s just underneath the laughter from the zingers that needs to be mentioned, and that’s a sense of melancholy.
There’s a rueful looking-back quality to much of the film, with each of the women recalling her husband(s), her children, and her experience as a “bird” in the London of the Swinging Sixties.
Seeing Plowright now trying to deal with her degenerating eyesight (and the kindness with which the other actresses treat her) reminds you that there may not be that many of these get-togethers of all four Dames left in the future. Each of the other three who are still working are only a few years younger than Plowright and may be facing a retirement of their own soon. And being deprived of seeing new work by them will make us all the poorer for it.
Granted, as a documentary, “Tea With the Dames” may seem to be a bit slight, especially compared with the substantive summer doc hits “RBG,” “Three Identical Strangers” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” But as an entertainment, it’s enormous. As the end credits suddenly appeared, I thought to myself, “Noooo! I want more!”
Seriously, when was the last film you saw that you felt was too short?
GRADE: B+
