The Duke (2020)

On my watch list for months, this delightful caper lived up to all I had read, as a 60-something Newcastle man steals a painting from the National Gallery of London in 1961. Yes, it did happen. Jim Broadbent is terrific as Kempton Bunton ("That's not a real name," someone says in the movie, but it was) as is Helen Mirren as his impatient wife Dorothy. In the very large cast you'll also see Fionn Whitehead as their son Jackie and Matthew Goode as a lawyer. The Duke of Wellington is the subject of the painting by Goya.

Roger Michell (who died in September, 2021 at 65) directs with a firm hand from a multi-layered script by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman and I loved the 60s-inspired score by George Fenton, 

Broadbent was 71 and Mirren was 76 when the movie was released in 2020. Kempton was 61 when the painting was stolen. But, as I said in an earlier post, maybe in earlier times 60-something people acted older than we did when we were that age (!).

Kempton and Dorothy's grandson Christopher Bunton is among the producers.

Broadbent and Goode were last blogged for The Sense of an Ending, Mirren for The Good Liar, Whitehead for Dunkirk, Michell for Le Week-End, Fenton for The Lady in the Van. Bean and Coleman make their screenplay debuts.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are in royal agreement with Jack and me, averaging 97%, while its audiences aren't far behind in succession at 85. We rented it July 27 from iTunes/Apple TV and loved it.