Monthly arts column

Keeping Mum is a gentle but dark film in the tradition of the Ealing comedies, set in beautiful coastal locations in Cornwall and the Isle of Man, with much Laura Ashley and bits of Country Living magazine also in evidence.

The characters are recognisable from the Working Title / Merchant Ivory genres and the cast is studded with British stars such as Dame Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas and Rowan Atkinson. Yet it is the presuppositions and conclusions held by the film’s moral framework that makes it more interesting on a spiritual level.

We are introduced to the dysfunctional family of a vicar (Atkinson, playing the role against type), which is looking for salvation in all the wrong places. The writer/director Niall Thompson says on the film’s website: ‘The overriding principle was this idea of sweet, normal, beautiful England and all the dark stuff that happens under the surface’. The Reverend Goodfellow thinks that salvation lies in writing a really great oratory and not being bothered by the flower arranging committee, his wife thinks it might be found by running away to Mexico with her golf instructor, their daughter is seeking thrills through a series of boyfriends and their son wants rescuing from bullies at school. On the surface, they live in a beautiful house in a delightful parish (in which the Reverend only seems to be in charge of one tiny church), but they aren’t satisfied. It is into this situation that the new housekeeper, Grace Hawkins, arrives, in a sort of twisted Mary Poppins way, bringing ‘salvation’ to her charges. Her violent solutions satisfy the family and the audience because the general consensus seems to be that the end justifies the means. ‘What really matters...’, shouts the underlying moral framework of the film, ‘...is that the family are back in relationship with each other’. It seems to promote the idea that sometimes it’s better to be quiet about the truth because it can threaten and destroy relationships that actually benefit from a bit of hypocrisy. I guess it is inevitable that a secular script does not consider the importance of being in relationship with God.

Understanding God

We never see inside the old trunk that Grace arrives with, although we know that the contents are grisly. The beauty of the old woman, and the gentle but heart-warming revelation at the end, papers over the tragedy of her unrepentant heart which has brought death and destruction to those she has disagreed with. The final gain for the family isn’t really satisfying either as it really only replicates Grace’s harmful nature. The initial hypocrisy of the wife, Gloria, only deepens as she colludes with and then mimics Grace’s habits, her daughter now complicit because of their shared experiences with Grace. The son now thinks that he has special powers to harm others and the Reverend, most dangerously of all, believes that his ability to help others understand God has improved because he is now a bit more ‘fun’ and can tell jokes successfully.

Dark joke

Unfortunately, the Reverend is portrayed as believing that the improvement in his family’s relationships is all down to divine intervention. He has to give a conference talk with the heading ‘God’s mysterious ways’ and uses Isaiah’s ‘your ways are not my ways’ as his text. Yet the way in which God has shown himself to be ‘sovereign’ in the film is in the way that Grace has inexplicably improved the life of his family. It is a dark joke, since, as well as Grace’s ungodly methods to achieve this end, everyone has been keen to keep the details of the affair and the murders from him. The result for him is an increase in faith through being ignorant of the truth. The result for audiences is the reinforcement of the idea that having faith in God is about ignoring the facts, or having them hidden from you.

In the larger context of British filmmaking, Keeping Mum is unspectacular but it is sufficiently satisfying for an evening of DVD watching. Like many other films, it carries ideas and beliefs that are deep rooted in our culture yet which profoundly challenge the truth of God’s pure and perfect grace as revealed through Jesus Christ.

Scary Poppins

Understanding God

Dark joke

Eleanor Margesson

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