Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley’s Edina and Patsy have not matured over the course of 25 years since the first episode of Absolutely Fabulous. They get older, Edina’s house gets larger, but their neediness stays the same. When they arrive late to a chi-chi fashion show, they fumble their way onto the catwalk, then shove their asses in the front row pushing other attendees off the bench. So begins Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, a film that feels like a tv special with a high budget.
Film works far differently than television, one of which is the bizarre need to like the characters you’re dedicated to watching for the next 90 minutes (the total length of both episodes of The Last Shout). As such, Saunders has downgraded Patsy and Edina from recognizable trainwrecks to lovable failures. After Edina loses most of her business to competition, her ex-husband refuses to pay any more alimony, and her book deal falls through, Eddy seeks to sign a new client to her PR firm, Kate Moss. In an accident, she shoves Kate Moss off a balcony into the river below, where Moss goes missing and is presumed dead. So, Patsy and Eddy hatch a scheme to hide out in luxury in Cannes with Eddy’s granddaughter, Lola (an absolutely stunning Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness).
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie removes Patsy and Eddy from the heart of the television show: the family. 2/3 of the movie are Patsy and Eddy off doing whatever they want, even abandoning Lola to the hotel housekeepers. Lola, Saffy, and Gran are given little to do in the wake of Saunders’ glorification of Patsy and Eddy. But, Saunders isn’t even focusing on skewering the fashion world or upper crust society, taking us away from fashion shoots and the business of public relations so we can have a money-grubbing adventure in the south of France. Bits of life lesson are delivered earnestly instead of ironically, and the whole movie feels like a fantasy of what we most fondly remember about the series. Remember how they had a fridge of champagne? Or, when they would go to Paris or Provence or Morocco for a wacky adventure? In doing so, it fails to live up to the potential of the best of the series.
That said, the movie is damned funny for what it is. As a light-hearted romp through expensive sets and celebrity cameos, without skewering much of anything, Absolutely Fabulous is a humorous delight to watch. Lumley and Saunders maintain their delicious clippy rapport, constantly breathing over each others lines but still holding a coherent conversation. The audaciousness of some of the set pieces are brilliant fun. As an extra-long mid-season jetset episode, Absolutely Fabulous would work well as part of a whole series that gets to the heart of the family unit. But, Saunders is only briefly interested in that and is more interested in escaping that world entirely. By doing so, one can’t help but feel a little shorted on the promise of the movie. It’s not as dark, as cruel, or as neurotic as any of the series, but it does have its laughs as the beloved characters tell an all new story across a big screen. It’s funny, but it could be so much more.
