It’s been a reassuringly robust summer at the box office, records breaking here, there and everywhere (sometimes all at once), but sighs of relief from the industry haven’t been able to mask personal sighs of exhaustion, a not necessarily bad season but a largely unremarkable one. There’s been a sense of fun missing, something that usually defines the films released during this period but not something that a maverick, a T rex, a Thor or an Elvis could truly deliver. It’s therefore rather delicious that it would arrive courtesy of Lesley Manville, floating into cinemas with Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, a charming flight of fancy that rewards the long-time character actor with a much-deserved chance to finally play the lead, a Cinderella story both on and off screen.
Anyone familiar with the films of Mike Leigh or prestige British TV will have already been aware, and probably in awe, of Manville long before 2017 but it was her Oscar-nominated turn in Phantom Thread that edged her up a level for most, previously unopened doors now suddenly ajar. She nabbed a juicy villain role in Let Him Go, tormenting, and ultimately stealing the film away from, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, joined the ensemble cast of BBC’s smash hit thriller series Sherwood, scored a key spot in Starz’s Dangerous Liaisons prequel and was cast as Princess Margaret in the next two seasons of The Crown (something that’s likely to lead to a bounty of awards). It’s all setting Manville up for the status she’s deserved for a great many years, as one of the UK’s finest, deserving of space alongside Helen Mirren and Judi Dench, the term “national treasure” cringingly yet accurately used.
