Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy is the work of a
man helplessly in love with the theatre. In
a gloriously entertaining period piece, he
tells the story of the genesis, preparation and
presentation of a comic opera – Gilbert and
Sullivan’s The Mikado – celebrating all the
dreaming and hard work, personality conflict
and team spirit, inspiration and mundane
detail, of every theatrical presentation,
however inspired or inept. Every production
is completely different, and they are all exactly
like this.
This is not merely a film that goes backstage,
but also one that goes into accounting ledgers,
hiring practices, costume design, personnel
problems, casting decisions, sex lives and the
endless detail work of rehearsal: Hours of work
are needed to manufacture and perfect even
a silly throwaway moment, so that it is thrown
away with style and wit, instead of merely
being misplaced.
Broadbent makes a precise Gilbert, bluff
and incisive, and Corduner’s Sullivan is a
study in the partner who cannot admit that
his greatness lies always in collaboration.
Romantic love ages and matures. Love of the
theatre, it reminds us, is somehow always
adolescent, heedless, passionate, guilty. It is
one of best films of 1999.
Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times
