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.
