Quaint and quirky and piquant, MR BLAKE AT YOUR SERVICE is a sweet skewered movie of mistaken identity and lost in translation drollery.
Directed by Giles Legardinier and based on his novel, Complètement Cramé!
John Malkovich breaks out his charm offensive in the role of the charming British businessman, Andrew Blake, still grieving the death of his beloved wife, leaving London and washing up in the French countryside.
For bed and lodging, Blake becomes the butler of the Domaine de Beauvillier estate, owned by the graceful and aloof Madame de Beauvillier, played by the ever radiant, Fanny Ardant.
A once-distinguished manor house, the estate is now a shadow of itself, with a loyal and efficient secretary, Odille, a groundsman, Magnier, and a general hand, Manon.
Taking on the mantle of butler, Blake becomes confidant and confessor to those who dwell at the Domaine de Beauvillier estate.
To be frank, Giles Legardinier isn’t a wunderkind film maker and maybe he should remain a novelist – the book is a bestseller, the film is certainly no blockbuster – but the casting is interesting and the outcome a diverting souffle.
Their reputations preceding them, Ardant and Malkovich are exceedingly watchable and so too is Emilie Dequenne as Odile, madame’s secretary, staunchly loyal and a stickler for the old protocols.
MR BLAKE AT YOUR SERVICE teeters on the mawkish when it tries to be poignant, then turns hawkish in flights of absurdity. A break and enter by the butler and his accomplice groundsman is nuttier than a fruit cake where the masked intruders further conceal themselves in gibberish linguistics and accents.
Quite the case of “The Butler Did It”, MR. BLAKE AT YOUR SERVICE is an amusing unassuming entertainment, a gentle pass time that champions the cause of co-operation and reconciliation.
