Get the MovieNight app
Add it to your home screen — faster & full screen
Get the MovieNight app
Add it to your home screen — faster & full screen
BBC Film
Focus Features
Perfect World Pictures
Not part of a collection.
History's most unlikely friendship.
Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.
Filipe Manuel Neto
Jul 7, 2022 · via TMDB
**A good movie, on almost every level.** I really like films with a historical background or those linked to the monarchy, which has a lot to do with my personal life, my birth family and also with my work as historian. I was very curious about this movie, and today I finally got to see it. And I can say that it was really good. I can't say that everything is fine, there are several scenes and moments that seem too imaginative to have actually happened, but the overall picture is quite positive. The relationship between the mighty Queen Victoria and this personal servant of hers was surely the subject of harsh criticism and enormous misunderstanding. The British court was then, like most of Europe, deeply prejudiced, racist and Eurocentric. There was really a belief that Europe was civilization and that the colonizing and imperialist efforts of the European powers would take some of that civilization to a barbaric world, with strange customs, lacking in Christian religion, education, manners, modern infrastructures that only white Europeans could manage. This was the British stance in India, and elsewhere in its empire. For us this may be shocking, and we have seen a wave of destruction of statues and monuments linked to the European colonial past because of this general feeling of shock and repudiation… but history will not disappear just because we sweep it under the rug. It is with the teachings of history, inside and outside the classroom, that we learn, and erasing the visible traces of a past that offends us (or that offends other peoples) is useless. I think we shouldn't be ashamed of having been empires, and of having been present in other countries, or having dominated other peoples. For better or worse, this marked both sides (dominators and dominated), and the cultural exchanges that took place helped shape the countries and peoples we know today. I think it is much more productive to learn from all this: to learn not to make the same mistakes, and on the other hand, to make the best use of the bridges and links that this common past has established between different nations from several parts of the world. Sorry for the rant, but I think it comes in handy. As the respectable reader has already noticed, the film explores the relationship between two very different people: the queen of the greatest empire of her time and a humble clerk who happened to serve her, becoming one of her favorites and shocking the racist and futile court. Much of what we know of this connection has been lost because the letters and documents were overwhelmingly burned after Victoria's death, but I think the film really captured the essence of what happened there. Judi Dench is a great actress, who curiously has already given life to Victoria in an older film, and is perfectly suited for the role and manages to establish a very positive chemistry with Ali Fazal, who is charismatic, friendly and captures our interest and our affinity. There are several characters in the film that seem sketchy and uninteresting, and most royal court figures fall into this group. I liked, however, the performance of Michael Gambon, Tim Piggot Smith and Eddie Izzard. The end of the film is particularly touching. On a technical level, I have to highlight the judicious and intelligent choice of filming locations, in particular Osborne House, a former royal residence closely linked to the monarch. The film uses that footage well, captures color and light very well, and builds an elegant, warm cinematography that's pleasing to the eye and very engaging. Being a period film, an extra effort was put into the sets and costumes, and I can say that I haven't noticed any major errors or problems here. The biggest criticism I can make is the difficulty I felt in understanding the passage of time: it would be difficult, for someone who didn't know the story well, to say if the action of the film takes place in the course of just a few days or the course of several years. Also, the score by Thomas Newman, written for the film, turned out to be excellent.
Peter McGinn
Apr 3, 2020 · via TMDB
I wouldn't say this is a memorable historical film, but it was interesting and entertaining enough to hold my attention. I researched the background a little bit, and I am not sure why they made some of their changes to how the unlikely friendship actually transpired. I assume it was to simplify the story. And as it happens, It is surprising that the story has gotten told at all. Apparently extreme measures undertaken by the royals after to obliterate any record of the unlikely friendship after Queen Victoria's death. anyone who has read about the history of British monarchs will recognize this attempt to control the narrative of the royals as they guard the parameters of the succession. But it is worth a watch regardless about exactly how accurate the details are. History is written by the ones in control, and this is a cool exception.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
Netflix
Netflix Standard with Ads
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
Judi Dench
Queen Victoria
Ali Fazal
Abdul Karim
Tim Pigott-Smith
Sir Henry Ponsonby
Suzy Eddie Izzard
Bertie, Prince of Wales
Adeel Akhtar
Mohammed
Michael Gambon
Lord Salisbury
Paul Higgins
Dr. James Reid
Olivia Williams
Baroness Churchill
Fenella Woolgar
Miss Phipps
Julian Wadham
Alick Yorke
Jonathan Harden
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Robin Soans
Arthur Bigge
Ruth McCabe
Mrs. Tuck
Simon Callow
Mr. Puccini
Benjamin Haigh
Page Boy
Martyn Mayger
Yeoman of the Guard
Deano Bugatti
Queen Victoria's Waiter
Penny Ryder
Grand Duchess Sophie
Rita McDonald Damper
Ham House Guest
Sukh Ojla
Mrs. Karim
Grant Crookes
Footman
Stuart Whelan
Chef (uncredited)
Danny Cohen
Director of Photography
Jake Polonsky
Second Unit Director of Photography
Consolata Boyle
Costume Design
Tim Pigott-Smith
In Memory Of
Stephen Frears
Director
Patrick Malone
Digital Intermediate
Lee Hall
Executive Producer
Beeban Kidron
Producer
Eric Fellner
Producer
Tim Bevan
Producer
Adam Mendez
Foley Mixer
J.A.C. Redford
Orchestrator
Thomas Newman
Original Music Composer
Ian Wilson
Supervising Sound Editor
Lee Hall
Screenplay
The Godfather
City of God
A Taxi Driver
Za ranních červánků
The Wages of Fear
The Iron Giant
Braveheart
Freedom Writers
Josh: Independence Through Unity
Downfall
Stand by Me
Hotel Rwanda
The Leopard
Mississippi Burning
The Hustler
Fried Green Tomatoes
Primal Fear
The Last Samurai
The Last Emperor
Jules and Jim
Au Revoir les Enfants
The Name of the Rose
Man on Fire
Apollo 13
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Hurricane
The Experiment
Chaplin
Scarface
Komang
Boys Don't Cry
Lord of War
Murder She Said
The Blue Angel
Little Women
Man on the Moon
Queen Margot
The Player
Shoot the Piano Player
The Outsiders
Straw Dogs
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
We Were Soldiers
Brubaker
Desert Hearts
The Darkest Minds
The Age of Innocence
Chocolat
The Tin Drum
Together
La Chinoise
Capote
Heavenly Creatures
Velvet Goldmine
The Story of Adèle H.
Shadowlands
Viva Zapata!
Not Without My Daughter
The Fortress
Chopper
The Bone Collector
Bully
The Harmonists
Mansfield Park
Candyman
Spider
To Die For
Crash
Private Parts
For Love of the Game
Sommersby
Sleepless
The Hitler Gang
No Escape
The Rules of Attraction
Factotum
World Trade Center
Ned Kelly
Caligula
Apple Mortgage Cake
Rembrandt
Anton Tchekhov 1890
Hanging Up
Up to the World
Rodin
The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky
A Murderous Affair: The Carolyn Warmus Story
The Match King
Dinner with Audrey
Mistr a Markétka
7 Miles Out
Untitled Chico Mendes Biopic
Counting Miracles
A. Rimbaud
Gino: A Child of War
Poslední rok
Robin
Andersonvillský proces
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue
I Swear
Sarah's Oil
Gigi & Nate
The Man Who Would Be King
Ludwig
Richard Jewell
Chaplin
Darkest Hour
The Physician
To Walk Invisible
Official Secrets
Waterloo
Footsteps in the Fog
Shattered Glass
Munich - The Edge of War
The Boy in the Woods
Peterloo
A Call to Spy
Rob Roy
A United Kingdom
One Night with the King
The Gathering Storm
The Wind and the Lion
Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend
Anonymous
Origin
The Happy Prince
Under Capricorn
Queen of the Desert
Sep 22, 2017
Oct 6, 2017
© 2025-2026 MovieNight. All rights reserved.
Versus
Sign in to play →
The Reckoning
2018
Despair Sessions
2015
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
Versus
Sign in to play →
The Reckoning
2018
Despair Sessions
2015
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
We use essential cookies to run MovieNight, plus analytics (Google Analytics) and advertising (Google AdSense) cookies. By continuing to browse, you agree to this — or click No and we won't. See our Terms & Privacy Policy to learn more.