I'm honestly not sure whether this movie would be funny to someone who isn't involved in morris dancing, but to those of us in the morris community, this is just priceless. It's a wonderful, gentle, loving, and intimately knowledgeable parody. Other reviews have compared it to "Spinal Tap" because of the mockumentary style, but I thought it was closer to "A Mighty Wind." The thing that jumps right out at a morris dancer is that the dancing is consummately well done, and the choreography -- even the really over-the-top "morris meets Lord of the Dance" bit at the American folk festival -- is always recognizably Cotswold morris, no matter how silly it is. The story actually manages to be touching, even when it's broadly humorous; the little moment at the "rustication" ceremony (where did they get that word?) where Dev silently mouths "I'm sorry" to Derecq just gets me every time, and I've seen the movie four times now. The acting and writing are consistently spot-on. As an added treat, it's fun to spot the actors from all the Jane Austen adaptations: Willoughby, Fanny Dashwood, and Robert Farrars from "Sense and Sensibility" all put in appearances, for example.
My only mild complaint, and it's really a small thing, is that it seems like they could have found an American actress to play Sonia. Some British actors can do American accents and some can't; Naomie Harris, unfortunately, is one of the latter variety. She was perfect in the role other than that, but this is one of those "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play" situations. Her overly-broad A's, particularly in the TV promo for Villandance bit, came off like a Brit poking fun at the colonials, which wasn't the idea at all.
My only mild complaint, and it's really a small thing, is that it seems like they could have found an American actress to play Sonia. Some British actors can do American accents and some can't; Naomie Harris, unfortunately, is one of the latter variety. She was perfect in the role other than that, but this is one of those "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play" situations. Her overly-broad A's, particularly in the TV promo for Villandance bit, came off like a Brit poking fun at the colonials, which wasn't the idea at all.