Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) are back and on the big screen!
Yes, “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie” reunites the best friends for more madcap adventures. In the film, which opens July 22 at Ritz Theatres, Edina is looking to goose her PR clientele after her book deal with Random Penguin fizzles. She targets a party Patsy’s magazine is hosting for famed fashion designer Huki Miki (Janette Tough).
But as Edina zeroes in on a famous celebrity model, an incident occurs that gets her (and Patsy) in trouble with the law and their faces splashed across the tabloids. Broke as well as despised, the pair hatches a scheme to find a wealthy man Patsy once knew — intimately, like so many other men — to maintain their lavish lifestyle. Because, well, the ladies believe living well is the best revenge.
“Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie” features terrific comic performances from Saunders and Lumley, who wear outrageous outfits and often have amusing expressions; Lumley’s sneer and Saunders’ wide-eyed looks are priceless. As expected, the pair smoke and drink throughout.
“A chaos of drink, and cigarettes and champagne,” Lumley said, drolly, in a recent conference call.
“And a few illegal substances … and generally, in very bad shoes,” Saunders added brightly.
In various comedic moments, Patsy can be seen licking the outside of a champagne bottle or, in a particularly desperate attempt for alcohol consumption, downing some Chanel No. 5. In another amusing sequence, Edina “exercises” uses a Razor scooter to travel from her front door to her car door.
“Yes, I’ve never been on a scooter before, and they won’t let me wear a helmet,” Saunders confessed. “I was very, very brave. It’s almost the most exercise I’ve ever done.”
Another “action” scene in “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie” involves a low-speed chase during which Patsy grabs a cigarette out of the mouth of a man in a café as her vehicle passes by him.
“We insisted on doing our own stunts,” Lumley said. “Obviously, it’s a reach from a car traveling at almost 3 miles an hour to take a cigarette off a completely supine man. It was a bit challenging, but I managed it.”
Given that the film is set in the fashion world, the “Ab Fab” ladies discussed Patsy and Edina’s fabulous frocks.
Saunders indicated that Edina “is always over-ambitious, should we say, with her costume. She’s always thinking she’s going to be really thin by tomorrow and never is, so she is squeezed into some appalling outfits.”
She added, “Edina gets older and fatter, and actually, Patsy doesn’t change at all. She’s just sort of embalmed and remains exactly the same.”
Lumley described Patsy as “cool as ever.” However, a subplot transpires that involves Patsy gluing on a mustache and pulling back her hair to assume a masculine identity as part of a crazy scheme.
Fans of the series will likely recall this is not Patsy’s first time as a man. Lumley notes that in Season 2, there was “a flashback to the ’60s where she had a mustache and was dressed in a Sgt. Pepper coat to be like a Beatle.”
Lumley is amused at how easy it is for guys to dress up as Patsy.
“You just want to get your good, yellow wig on, lots of lovely red lips. Most men have very good legs, much better than mine, so men’s beautiful legs show in good stockings. Nice pair of high heels. A [bottle], cigarette on the go. Dark shades on. You’re there.”
While the two stars and their manic antics provide much of the film’s fun, there is also some hilarity featuring cast favorites Bubbles (Jane Horrocks), Edina’s mother (June Whitfield), Saffron (Julia Sawalha) and Saffron’s teenage Lola (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness). What’s more, the celebrity cameos are, well, fabulous. It would spoil some jokes to say what A-lister lost his virginity at 15 to Patsy, or what famous drag queen and actress turn up when the cops search for Edina and Patsy, but what can be revealed is that Jerry Hall sends herself up on the red carpet, while Stella McCartney, Emma Bunton (aka Baby Spice), Graham Norton, Perez Hilton and Jean-Paul Gaultier all appear in “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.”
When asked how the film was able to attract the celebrities it did, Saunders acknowledged, “You always end up with the people who are available on the day, and who you love and who you know and who are easygoing and happy. I don’t think we ever [planned anyone]. We just said, ‘Look, we’re having a party. Will you come and be in it?’ Lots of people turned up and were incredibly generous.”
Fans will no doubt appreciate the film’s fabulous “party” atmosphere, which is infectious.