Rent Viceroy's House (2017)

Outstanding - Viceroy's House review by EN

Outstanding!, Gurinder Chadha's direction is fantastic here, her movie has authenticity and heart as well as stunning photography, period detail and an old-fashioned epic sweep.

Everyone, Indian and English, is portrayed with humanity and reverence. The acting is uniformly brilliant, with Gillian Anderson standing out in her portrayal of an intelligent, compassionate and resourceful strategist & modern thinker who rises to the challenges of her responsibility within the constraints of her official role, at a very traumatic time in history. A thoroughly enjoyable, sophisticated and unforgettable movie. Very highly recommended.

Informative and entertaining - Viceroy's House review by AL

Never knew how the split of India happened, and this film really helped explained it. Educational and entertaining. There were a couple side stories that seemed a little but shoe horned in, hence the 4 stars. But thoroughly recommend.

Different Perspective on History - Viceroy's House review by KW

Wonderful covering the period of Earl Mountbatten's time as Viceroy of India and the lead up to independence. How much was based on actual events is open to question but for me it was the performance of Gillian Anderson as Lady Mountbatten who for me stole the film with her portrayal of Lady Mountbatten and her concerns for the local population and the potential pitfalls the partition of India could bring.

Not for me - Viceroy's House review by JB

I tried to like this film but couldn't watch the whole thing. I found it too slow and wasn't gripped by it as I had thought I would be. Not at all my kind of film

A FAKE NEWS movie which deliberately fabricates history to be anti-British. Conspiracy theory tosh. - Viceroy's House review by PV

Right at the end of this film there is VERY SMALL PRINT on screen stating something like "although this film is based on true events many things have been fictionalised." You're telling me!

The director (ironically a female Hindu Indian who had FAR more opportunities being born in 'nasty white Britain' than she ever would have had in her beloved India - riven at it is by caste and class hatreds, religious hatred and massive sexism against women) seems keen, with her fellow screenwriters, of blaming the nasty evil white British for all that is wrong in Indian history and for the utterly disgusting atrocities than the population of British India committed against each other in the name of their religions - Hindu, Islam or Sikh.

Well, that is fake news and a half! The British, let us not forget, CREATED the democratic country called India - they overthrew the Muslim dictators called the Moghuls, brought democracy, law, trade, civilisation to India and stamped out the primitive traditions in the Indian subcontinent - such as slavery, child marriage/abuse, forced marriage and sutu (the tradition whereby a widow has to throw herself on the funeral pyre of her husband and get burned alive until she is ashes!) The British also tried to stamp out the disgusting caste system, though that still survives - also 100 million Muslims still live in India, and Pakistan is no secular state, but a country where half the people are Islamists and against the West. India's industry could not have happened without British rule - they Brits gave India railways and organisation. Also, we gave them tea and planted plantations - the Indians did NOT drink tea as a daily drink until the British arrived. We also gave them AND the Chinese chillies which are native to central America. Imagine Indian food without chillies! You can thank the nasty evil white British for that...

No mention here of the many Indians who fought against the British and allies with the Japanese and Nazis in World War II and an ABSURD claim is made the Britain and the allies would have lost the war without Indian soldiers (who joined up because many were loyal to the British and are now despite the noisy Brit-haters' rewriting of history).

Worst of all is that gullible people who watch this dodgy film will believe it represents truth - including the LIE of a conspiracy theory it is founded on, namely that the British and Churchill deliberately caused conflict and partition in India in order to thwart Soviet ambitions. That is a lie. LIE. And utter UTTER lie promoted by crackpots in books - and this movie is based on 2 books, one of them being that lie-drenched conspiracy theory.

This movie is racist against the white British, frankly. And NO MENTION in the end titles that Mountbatten was assassinated by being blown up on a boat by the IRA whilst fishing in Northern Ireland.

A disgusting lie-spewing movie. Fake News. NO STARS.

Good film - Viceroy's House review by SB

I thought this was a good film showing rights and wrongs on all sides. Very different times.Very moving

Lightweight - Viceroy's House review by IG

Not a bad effort, but, does have it's moments as in the movie Titanic where fiction gets in the way of historical fact. Hugh Bonneville for example seems more like Lord Grantham from Downton Abbey than a plausible Mountbatten, he is just a bit too nice. That said, the film scores well visually and is interesting to watch, with some good individual performances: Good but not outstanding.