Absolutely Fabulous: the Movie

The gutsy glamour, the barhopping, the “daring, sweetie, darling”: what can I say, growing up with Eddie and Pats was, well, absolutely fabulous. And now, oh so many years later, there is an Ab Fab movie. All our favourite characters are back after decades and are just as we remember them. But here is where the big question comes in: we fell in love with these women 20 years ago, if they haven’t changed a bit in all that time, do we still love them when they bounce back onto our screens in their movie debut? 

For me sadly, the answer is no. Sometimes, indeed more often than we’d care to admit, some characters and some humour just doesn’t stand the test of time and Absolutely Fabulous: the Movie causes Eddie and Pats to squat amongst the likes of Kath and Kim, Hansel and Zoolander: characters who took a hit with the TV to movie deal or withered in decades between films. But, it can be argued that this is exactly the point this movie is trying to make: we don’t stay fabulous try as we might, thus making it actually a rather clever movie. I can see this point, but am unconvinced. 

Life has not changed for Eddie Monsoon with Lulu and Emma Bunton being her only clients. But when she hears that Kate Moss fired her PR, the promise of the high life beckons. However, things take a terrible turn when an overeager Eddie and her rival, Claudia Bing, accidently push Kate overboard at a fashion party on the Thames. Eddie is blamed and soon the accident turns into a case of murder as Kate Moss doesn’t resurface and is presumed dead. Mortified, Eddie and Pats flee to the French Riviera where they hatch a plan that will make their escape permanent and allow them to live the high life forever. 

I don’t know what it was, but I just felt that everything in this movie was forced. The humour is tired and doesn’t work nearly as well as it did once upon a time, the characters seemed like they were struggling to find their feet for the most part, and whilst a smorgasbord of hot and fashionable cameos can be incredible, it doesn’t save you from drowning. I did enjoy the simplicity of the story; I will give the movie that because it sets up an endless hallway of reminiscent gags. But a good number of those gags are either underdeveloped or function-less, and the others merely succeed in achieving a one-bark laugh. 

It’s the characters that let this movie down. Eddie is still bumbling and impressionable with a fear of her own fat and age, but her vivacity and loudness seems to have vanished. Indeed the most tender part of the movie is when she sincerely comes to terms with how fabulously ridiculous she is. Pats is actually the only sure-footed character here; Lumley stepping naturally into the character as though no time has passed, but it’s just not enough. Saffy has just given up; she’s just a pretty wisp with a ruined life that no one can believe she just put up with, and I really don’t know what they were going for with the character of Jane/Lola, Saffy’s daughter. Only a baby when the series ended, Lola’s a teen now and she just seems to be there as part of the furniture; she has no relationship with Saffy and not a real one with Eddie either so her character is at best confused and pointless. 

If I have to give the movie a hurrah, it would be towards the costume department because the outfits are just as outrageous and glamorous as ever. 

Ab Fab the show, wonderful. Ab Fab the movie, not so fabulous. 

Starring: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness, Jane Horrocks, June Whitfield, Mo Gaffney, Christopher Ryan, Mark Gatiss, Graham Norton, Gwendoline Christie, Lulu, Emma Bunton, Kate Moss, Kathy Burke, Celia Imrie, Lily Cole, Stella McCartney, Chris Colfer, Suki Waterhouse, Alexa Chung, Daisy Lowe, Jourdan Dunn, Lara Stone, Perez Hilton, Harriet Thorpe, Helen Lederer, Dawn French, Rebel Wilson, Jean-Paul Gautier, Barrie Humphries, and Jon Hamm 

Rating: M