Review of The Duke (2021) by Mauro_Lanari — 20 Jun 2022

(Mauro Lanari).

The expectation is to witness a social issue like those of Loach treated with the panache of the Michell of "Notting Hill", here at his latest film before dying at the end of the summer of the following year. But the biopic is about a bizarre protagonist whose events do not reach neither drama nor comedy. The new Robin Hood, a 60-year-old John Doe who fights injustice, power and system, is impertinent and witty more in theory than in practice, emotionally blurred and shaky as the closet in which he hides the painting. We observe him hoping that the brilliant talent of the two main actors will make up for the shortcomings of the true story of Kempton Bunton and his family, but perplexities take over. "The limit [...] of English cinema so [impeccably delicious, sophisticated], reassuring and predictable is [precisely its being devoid of] ripples, inert as a Sunday afternoon" (Enrico Azzano).