Allelujah

 A script adapted from an Alan Bennett play and a stellar cast of weel kent faces promises more than this film is able to deliver, but there's still plenty to entertain and an important message to deliver.  Even if the latter comes through with mixed messages and a heavy handed Coda.

The Bethelem Hospital, aka The Beth, is a much loved local hospital in Yorkshire, now used solely for geriatric patients too unwell for care homes.  It's under threat of closure by the tory government, so volunteers are busy fund raising, and a film crew are visiting to talk to staff and patients for a documentary.  The health minister has sent up one of his management consultants to finalise the report that will authorise closure, but he's also visiting his dad who's been taken in there.

For all the threat hanging over it, the place doesn't feel in crisis, the staff not overstretched, so it's not quite the real world.  Making up for that is a script with some classic Bennett lines, and a great central performance from Jennifer Saunders as the dedicated Ward sister who's given her life to The Beth.  It's a generally heart warming affair, full of stereotypes, but with a lot of fun to be had.  As the end nears it feels like we're heading for feelgood territory with the evil consultant (Russell Tovey) heading for an epiphany that will bring change for the better.

But it doesn't all work out that way, and the plot twist reveals both the best and the worst of the NHS.  That worst doesn't stop this being a reminder of just how important the NHS is in our society, and how it's interweaving links affect so much of our lives.  If the final polemic feels clumsy and out of place that may be no bad thing.  The health service is in crisis, largely because that's exactly what this cruel government wants it to be.  It gives them their excuse to make it all about money, something Tovey's character makes all too clear.  

As a movie Allelujah falls short in many ways.  As a timely reminder of where we are, it hits the mark with a sledgehammer blow.