Kempton Bunton may be on the witness stand in "The Duke" but he behaves like it's a stand-up comedy club.
The gentle, fact-based movie depicts Bunton (Jim Broadbent) as a goofy, absentminded rascal and social activist who fancies himself the Robin Hood of midcentury London. Those forces combine when the oft-arrested but infrequently employed Bunton decides to steal a Goya painting from the National Gallery and use the proceeds to finance his pet cause: buying TV subscriptions for British working-class people of the early 1960s.
That sounds a bit dry but the swift, charming "The Duke" absolutely isn't. Broadbent's dithery, endearing performance pairs perfectly with fellow Oscar winner Helen Mirren's as Dorothy Bunton, who supports the family by cleaning houses and takes a dim, sarcastic view of her husband's shenanigans.
