Scandal review
Caton-Jones’ first feature is a serious, almost ill-bred-key amour, strong on period detail and imbued with a sense of genuine desecrate on behalf of both the ruined Stephen Ward (Hurt) and the cracked and derailed Christine Keeler (Whalley-Kilmer) which lifts it out of reach of the simply exploitative. Both main performances are strong at the core of a even so compelling untruth (Hurt in particular, a riveting jumble of weakness, seediness, uselessness and kindness). Less satisfying are McKellen’s Profumo, who looks more ask preference a samurai warrior than a war pastor; Bridget Fonda’s Mandy Rice-Davies, and Jean Alexander’s Mrs Keeler, who seem to possess succumbed to the malicious-cubicle quarters jitter machine. Others must decide on the propriety of this cinematic exhumation; for those who weren’t around at the schedule of the scandal in the early ’60s, and nonetheless pro those who were, it certainly makes dismaying if illuminating viewing.