Tea with the Dames (2018)

Film: Tea with the Dames (2018)
Stars: Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith
Director: Roger Michell
Oscar History: No nominations for the film, but with nominations for 14 Oscars, 16 Emmys, 31 Olivier Awards, 26 Globes, & an astounding 49 BAFTA citations, this is a cast that is perpetually in need of more shelf space for their hardware.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I sometimes imagine the joy that other people feel when watching SportsCenter or Real Housewives is the joy I feel watching actresses being interviewed.  I love literally nothing more than talking about movies and acting and performances, and seek out such a thrill every chance I get.  If such an analogy works, Tea with the Dames would surely be a Super Bowl of sorts.  Seating Eileen Atkins, Joan Plowright, Judi Dench, & Maggie Smith in the same room is absolute unparalleled bliss, watching them spar, chuckle, and think over decades of performances, careers, and costars.  Honestly-even if it's never quite as flawless as the trailer made it seem, the movie is impossible to resist, and filled with marvelous quotes and reflections from four grand titans in the world of acting.

The film follows the four longtime friends on what appears to be a leisurely weekend at Plowright's country estate, one that she used to own with her husband, Laurence Olivier, who costarred with all four women throughout their careers.  The film meanders between table conversations among the four women, with Dench & Smith, obviously the most famous of the quartet, dominating the chatting, and then one-on-one interviews with either one or two of the women in pairs.  The film focuses a lot on their stage work, which is extensive and kind of admirably ridiculous (between the four women, is there a play by Shakespeare or Chekhov that they haven't got covered?), occasionally meandering their time in film or their personal lives, but most frequently it's just meandering conversation, quite frequently sneaking in the names of other titled thespians with whom they worked (in addition to Olivier, players as diverse as John Gielgud, Edith Evans, and Robert Stephens all get name-checked, frequently with a "Sir" or "Dame" tagged on to pay respect).

The movie is, on its own merits, fine.  The film suffers a bit from waiting too long for making such a picture.  Smith, at a very-recent 84, is the youngest of the bunch, and age has started to put a strain on the once matchless wit of the women, as we are reminded when Michell throws in snippets of old interviews of the actresses.  It's a bit heartbreaking watching Plowright, in particular, walk around the house with handrails and a guide, as she has gone almost completely blind in the past decade and as a result is absent for more of the picture than the other three women.  Not even 90 minutes long, it feels like the sort of film that needed a bit more spring, but also would have benefited from more length (provided the length wasn't just filler), and it's hard to watch & not come to the realization that these amazing women may someday soon all be gone from our mortal coil.

That said, it's impossible to deny the pleasures of such a movie.  Watching these four women, who have given the world so much with their talents and gifts, is a thrill.  Each one of them has film and television memories for me etched across her face, and so I could go watch this exact movie again right now and be totally fine.  The movie may not be everything I hoped, but what's there is more than enough.  Flighty, fun, getting all of its meaning from four proper legends of stage and screen, all of whom it's impossible not to love if you care at all for the art of acting.