Mrs Caldicot has been taking orders from bullies all her life. When her husband dies in a freak cricketing accident, her son and evil daughter-in-law ruthlessly kick her out of home. Ending up doped to the eyeballs in a rest home, she unwittingly signs away the rights to the house and land – land her son wants in order to build a housing estate. Upon sobering up, she decides she’s had enough and with her newfound friends in the home, she sets about righting the wrongs.

This is a sweet tale with an important message running quite visibly throughout. However, the sadness running deeper tends to hold off the laughs a little, so we feel more sympathy with Thelma Caldicot. In terms of comedy, this doesn’t work to the best effect, creating a movie that tends to drift along from one misadventure to the next with no real laughter between. It’s unfortunate, for this movie has a lot of potential for laughs, but these are wasted in light of overplaying the message beneath.

Tony Robinson, who we remember best as Baldrick from Blackadder, is virtually thrown away in his role, playing nasty over funny. There is also a funny subplot about the rest home manager and the matron that is left incomplete and unused for the series of comical situations it could have utilised. Oh well. The movie is still good fun with a lot of old people playing for laughs. For the most part this does work well, but again there’s the rich vein of unhappiness running beneath to spoil the joke.

The film (which is actually still playing at my local theatre!) has been presented in its original theatrical size of 1.85:1 with a nice 16:9 anamorphic widescreen transfer thrown in for good measure. The picture is fairly clean and well presented, although there are the usual droppings from the artefact fairies. Flesh tones are all good and the colour is quite even throughout. Most of the shadows are okay, though some lose a little detail in the old hotel scenes. Blacks, too, are mostly okay, though there are occasional forays into greenism.

We get a choice of Dolbys before the film starts, 5.1 or 2.0. Need I say what I went for? (It was the 5.1). Choice didn’t actually make that big a deal, as there was very little for the sound to work with. Being mostly a talkie, there aren’t any exploding mountain lairs or jet-powered dinosaurs to worry about, so do what you will. All the dialogue is just fine though, whilst on the subject, although you may pick up slight synch troubles throughout. I rewatched some scenes to be sure it wasn’t just me and it did happen again, so be warned. This isn’t major, either, it’s just the slightest hint occasionally and doesn’t impede the film whatsoever. The music is a teensy bit chirpy sometimes too, being used to portray the old folks as chipper and happy-go-lucky, but it doesn’t always work. The sound is all fine, however, and has been treated well with no apparent flaws.

As to extras, well, hold onto your potatoes because there’s a Trailer! Presented in awesome 4:3 and running for a full two minutes and 25 seconds, you will be blown away by its extreme black-goes-green bits. Woo. Then, just for good measure, there’s a little Easter Egg nestled away on the main menu, but I’ll let you find that yerself. It’s hardly hard to find. And the reward? Well, let’s say your next dinner party will be a windy affair.

Seeing the underdog triumph is always good. It’s a theme that runs through a majority of films these days and it makes our lives a little brighter to see someone stick it to the man. Mrs Caldicot is a film that will find your funny bone, though some of the issues it presents are quite serious – perhaps just a little too serious for the vehicle it is delivered in. Finding the difference between suggestion and preachiness is sometimes a difficult one, and not one that this film has entirely negotiated well. It does have its lighter moments, but as a comedy it wastes many golden opportunities for laughs in favour of an empathetic tug on the sleeve. I felt the same way about Muriel’s Wedding too. It had its laughs as well, but its conscience keeps nagging away at you. And so too does Mrs Caldicot, though we cheer her along all the way.