Starring Jim Broadbent, Allan Corduner, Lesley Manville, Eleanor David, Ron Cook, Timothy Spall, Kevin McKidd, Martin Savage, Shirley Henderson, Dorothy Atkinson, Cathy Sara, Wendy Nottingham, Jonathon Aris, Louise Gold. Written and Directed by Mike Leigh. W. S. Gilbert (Broadbent) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (Corduner) are the toast of London Theatre, wildly successful writers and producers of comic operettas such as H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. Working under contract for the Savoy Theatre, they have been together for 20 years and their current play Princess Ida is tanking. And their working relationship is beginning to deteriorate. Sullivan believes he's repeating himself, and longs to write a serious, tragic opera. Sickly, with bad kidneys and disease suffered from his many trips to brothels and to his mistress Fanny (David), he decides to take off for a recuperative trip to southern France, Italy and all over Europe. Gilbert is no-nonsense, proper and so uptight he can't bring himself to sleep with his wife Lucy (Manville), despite her many not so subtle hints she would like him to. He thinks Sullivan and his desire for serious work irresponsible to him and their contract, suggesting he should leave him and contact "Ibsen" in Norway. Gilbert likes his upper-middle class lifestyle brought about by their success, and has no desire to jeopardize it. When he arrives back home, Sullivan refuses to put music to Gilbert's latest play whose plot once again turns on a character swallowing a magic potion. One evening, Lucy takes Gilbert to see a Japanese play. He has a brainstorm, and from this is born one of Gilbert and Sullivan's best plays, The Mikado. Company regulars Richard Temple (Spall), Grossmith (Savage), Leonara Braham (Henderson), Jessie Bond (Atkinson) and the others work feverishly under Gilbert's stern direction to complete preparations before the curtain rises. This would seem a bit of a departure for maverick British director Mike Leigh (Naked, Secrets and Lies), but it is not really. His hallmarks of sharply observed dialogue, social commentary and exceptional performances from his actors remain intact. Leigh firstly deals with the always current question of artistic growth vs. commerce. Leigh himself has chosen the less mainstream artistic route, and he sympathetically examines Sullivan's desire to stretch himself, to do something more worthwhile than his "trivial souffles". Secondly, like Lennon and McCartney, Simon and Garfunkel, and many famous duos he illustrates the difficulty in a working relationship not growing stale, not becoming simply being a money-generating business proposition. Gilbert and Sullivan work entirely apart. Gilbert writes his witty words on his own, and then sends them to Sullivan to add his music, as the Beatles duo did in their final days "together". Thirdly, Leigh illustrates the pitfalls and strains in creating and producing a play, the addictions, and the damage to actors' personal lives of this all-consuming profession. He shows the egos and stress inherent in getting high-strung actors ready to go in a short period of time, but also the closeness a company feels when their work is ready to go onstage. In one scene, Gilbert at the last moment decides to cut a number from company veteran Temple, but the chorus members wrisk Gilbert's wrath by asking him to put the song back in, which he wisely does. The movie starts off a bit slowly, but begins to soar in the latter half of the film as the Mikado is beginning to be rehearsed. One scene is brilliantly written and executed where Gilbert wishes his three little maids to walk in a more Japanese manner, and brings back some of the Japanese women whom he had earlier met to demonstrate the proper way. In the next scene, Gilbert rehearses a scene with four of the actors. The timing of the dialogue and the actors are amazing, making these scenes as funny as anything I've seen this year. The rest of the movie is well-written, although not as good as this, and some of the earlier scenes in the movie drag on just a little bit. Throughout the film, Leigh interjects snipits of various Gilbert and Sullivan plays, many times to illustrate something in a character's real life. Having seen several Gilbert and Sullivan plays in high school, the colour and staging of the scenes were beautifully done. Several performers give exceptionally fine performances. Broadbent is amazing as the humourless writer. In one scene he reads some quite witty and ironic lines from the Mikado to his wife without so much as cracking a smile. He's so uptight throughout, he can never really enjoy his success, always worried failure is just around the corner. Manley is quietly excellent as Gilbert's loving but frustrated wife. Savage, Manley, Henderson, Corduner and Spall all stand out. I'm not a great fan of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, but Topsy Turvy should impress even those who may not like operettas or musicals because of its excellent story and superb performances. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page