With the title ‘Mr Blake, at your service’ is a reminder of the late great Joan Rivers quip about a visit to her gynaecologist who would always greet her with , ‘Dr Blake, at your cervix!’ Mercifully this is a world away from her acerbic humour based as it is on author Gilles Lagardinier’s novel and here he directs too from a script he has adapted.
It takes grieving widow Andrew Blake ( John Malkovich) who, in an effort to ease his pain, takes a holiday in the French chateau where he first met his wife. But things at the chateau have changed since then with the owner Natalie Beauvillier (Fanny Ardant) now struggling with her finances. But when Blake turns up he is mistaken by the housekeeper (the late Emilie Dequenne) as someone applying to her advert for a butler. It’s a comedy of errors from the get go and Blake goes along with it and agrees to be a butler because , hey! Why not? His wife is dead, he has no focus in his life since retiring so being a pretend butler it is! And from thereon mush of comedy comes from other misunderstandings as other characters tell him what and what not to do. All to hilarious effect. Well no, not really. Much of this is painfully contrived – one scene sees Malkovich in drag that’s plays as though he’s been allowed to choose something wild from the costume department’s dressing up box – and ultimately at the heart of all of this is the developing and almost inevitable romance between Blake and Beauvillier.
It’s all harmless enough but it’s somewhat saggy pacing is hardly helped by Malkovich’s unmistakable delivery of his lines and all in French that makes ‘Mr Blake at your service’ something of a chore to get through. And it’s a shame because with a tightening of pace and perhaps a reset of location to a Downton Abbey-esque England ( not a slur n the location her which is beautifully shot in stunning grounds). ‘Mr Blake, as your service’ is a bit of an oddity but has the bizarre novelty value of Malkovich’s performance.
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related feature : The Downton Abbey alternate endings…..
Here’s the trailer……
