Indulging in the life of the vapid

Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. Image courtesy Fox Searchlight.

In a summer season built upon remakes, reboots and sequels, it seems oddly appropriate to unleash a film adaptation of an obscure British television franchise first released more than two decades ago and was last refreshed four years ago. Here we are though with Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, a title that more than lives up to the ostentatious tackiness of inherent to its name, the series’ legacy, and, to its detriment, its roots as a cult television series.

The show remains somewhat notable in the United Kingdom, but it never took hold of the mainstream on our side of the pond, earning a devoted but small audience along the way. The film’s existence is to appeal to the fans who have spent a large portion of their lives following the misadventures of public relations hack Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and fashion director Patsy (Joanna Lumley), along with the constant consternation of Edina’s daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalha). Viewers less familiar with the original series will remain out of the loop, although the film is tacky enough to earn at least some level of attention for the uninitiated.

Newbies will be a bit perplexed by the movie’s aimless plotting. Absolutely Fabulous starts off with Edina’s need for social validation – model Kate Moss serves as a MacGuffin – that somehow results in Patsy dressing as a man to marry a wealthy dowager (has a movie ever featured a poor dowager?) in France. That results in a homage to Some Like It Hot, along with a necessary yet uninspired and unsatisfying happy resolution for Edina and Patsy. With so little plot to work from, Absolutely Fabulous feels much longer than it is, especially amid a third act that exists with little motivation for being so. Saunders, who also penned the script, can't quite move the film beyond its TV origins, creating a movie that feels more like three television episodes tied together than one singular film.

Then again, Absolutely Fabulous is one of those films where the plot serves less of an integral requirement than as a method of delivering what viewers want. Essentially, it doesn't matter how Patsy and Edina are getting drunk or high and making catty comments about people, it just matters that those actions are taking place in some capacity. For all of Saunders' story issues, she knows how to write for the two main characters and how to wring out the perfectly wrong one liner for herself and for Lumley. A couple of jokes stretch a skosh beyond the realm of comfortable – one involving statutory rape toward Jon Hamm and a couple of transgender cracks come to mind – but most of the things coming through those characters' mouths are aimed at mocking the Patsy and Edina, not the target of the jokes. It is a very, very thin line, but Saunders mostly stays on the right side of it.

Absolutely Fabulous is the rare adaptation to embrace its anachronistic state instead of aiming for relevance in a world that's passed it by: A multitude of its guest stars, from Moss to Dame Edna to Emma Bunton (better known as Baby Spice in the states) to Joan Collins, are known best as remnants of the past than presences of great import in the present. It's a fitting point for the two central characters, public relations hack Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and fashion director Patsy (Joanna Lumley), who indulge themselves in the shallow things in life, chasing a life of great emptiness and little redemptive value. They make for a hideous coupling in Absolutely Fabulous, so shallow and self-centered they remain utterly contemptible even in the one moment in which Saunders' Edina seeks salvation (the plea is, fittingly, undercut within a matter of seconds). Which is, of course, the joke in this film; these two people can somehow survive in industries that passed them by years ago because they're too lost in their own worlds to realize it. Patsy and Edina, like the film they star in, are empty creatures who live on tackiness and the approval of the fashion world they desperately want to embrace (and for it to embrace them). Absolutely Fabulous mocks the very emptiness the fashion industry thrives upon, yet it can't quite reject the beauty exuding from the emptiness, as if it were a moth attracted to a radiation leak. Saunders, both as a writer and as Edina, embraces the tackiness of fashion, wearing garish and often ghastly outfits as a means of joining the fraternity and hiding from the aging that spoils her character's brilliant vanity.

There's very much room in this world for film's as openly tacky and campy as Absolutely Fabulous. It's outrageously silly and knows how to serve the small but rabid audience that will pay to watch it, and it is often rather funny despite losing its moorings. This is the film Zoolander 2 should've been.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 90 minutes

Genre: Comedy 
 

Ask Away

Target audience: The people who watched the original series.

Take the whole family?: The “R” rating is a little harsh, but interest wise it probably wouldn't be of interest to most viewers younger than 17 anyway.

Theater or Netflix?: Best off waiting for the streaming release to pair it with the rest of the series.

How does the film associate with modern technology ?: Not particularly well, which is a missed opportunity for Jennifer Saunders and crew to really have some fun. It is understandable that Patsy and Edina would have some hesitation dealing with the social media, but the platforms are really too perfect for them to resist. How could these women avoid avenues to talk more about themselves?

Watch this as well?: Probably the best version of what Absolutely Fabulous aims to be is 1996's The Birdcage. That film is off the walls campy with very good performances from Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman and one terrific performance by Hank Azaria.