Murder in the Rectory (2005)

Movie
German title	Murder in the rectory
Original title	Keeping Mum
Country of production	Great Britain
original language	English
Publishing year	2005
length	103 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6 ; JMK 10
Rod
Director	Niall Johnson
script	Richard Russo , ; Niall Johnson
production	Julia Palau , ; Matthew Payne
music	Dickon Hinchliffe
camera	Gavin Finney
cut	Jonathan Sales , ; Robin Sales
occupation
	Rowan Atkinson : Rev. Walter Goodfellow; Kristin Scott Thomas : Gloria Goodfellow; Maggie Smith : Grace Hawkins; Patrick Swayze : Lance; Tamsin Egerton : Holly Goodfellow; Toby Parkes : Petey Goodfellow; Emilia Fox : young Rosie Jones; Liz Smith : Mrs. Parker; James Booth : Mr. Brown;
synchronization

Murder at the Vicarage is a 2005 film directed by Niall Johnson in the United Kingdom .

action

The lovable but unworldly Pastor Walter Goodfellow lives with his wife Gloria and their children Holly and Petey in the small English community of Little Wallop. In his endeavor to be a good spiritual leader in his community, to be there for everyone and also to write an important sermon for a convent, he misses how lonely and neglected his wife feels. Frustrated, she turns to her American golf instructor Lance and even plans to run off to Mexico with him. Walter also goes unnoticed in his children's everyday lives. He doesn't seem to notice that his 17-year-old daughter Holly is constantly changing friends and that Petey is being teased and beaten up by other kids at school.

Only the new housekeeper Grace Hawkins seems to get the family's problems under control, albeit with rather unusual means. She disposed of a yapping mutt from the neighborhood and later also its owner Mr. Brown in the garden pond, and later she did the same with Gloria's lover Lance, who also had a weakness for Holly, which he filmed with a video camera at night while undressing.

Petey's tormentors, who are constantly on the move with their bikes, fail the brakes on a sloping road after Grace tampered with it. However, Petey thinks his magic word "broccoli" caused the falls. The incident gives him renewed confidence.

Walter, on the other hand, finds his humor through religious jokes and, animated by Grace's reading of the Bible - especially the “ Song of Solomon ” - turns back to his wife. He also found it much easier to write the speech for the Convention, and so the lecture was a great success for him.

But Grace can't keep her secrets to herself for long, because Gloria and Holly learn through a TV show that she is the "suitcase killer" who was recently released from prison. About 43 years ago she had killed her husband, whom she was pregnant with, and his lover and hid them in her large trunk. Blood leaking from the suitcase had alerted a train conductor to the contents. To be sure, Gloria and Holly want to see what's in the trunk in Grace's room. They are caught by her and they confront her. Grace openly admits her deeds and reveals another secret - she is Gloria's mother.

Gloria leaves it to Grace to sink Lance's body in the garden pond. Both suspect, however, that they are being watched by their aged and curious neighbor, Mrs. Parker (she is chairman of the "Committee for the Care of Church Flowers"). When she comes to visit the next day, Grace, who has only heard part of the conversation and assumes that her secret has been discovered, wants to kill the old lady with a frying pan. The neighbor, who has a heart condition, dies of shock when Grace rushes towards her with a raised pan.

After this incident, Grace leaves the family so as not to cause more trouble. Gloria writes her letters and Grace plans to visit a few months later. When Gloria is confronted with the fact that the pond in which the bodies are lying is about to be drained because of dangerous algae, she does not hesitate to use her mother's methods.

Cast and dubbing

The German dubbing was done by Interopa Film GmbH , the dialogue was directed by Heinz Freitag .

role	actor	Voice actor
Reverend Walter Goodfellow	Rowan Atkinson	Lutz Mackensy
Grace Hawkins (Rosie Jones)	Maggie Smith	Gisela Fritsch
Gloria Goodfellow	Kristin Scott Thomas	Traudel Haas
Lance	Patrick Swayze	Oliver Stritzel
Holly Goodfellow	Tamsin Egerton	Yvonne Greitzke
Petey Goodfellow	Toby Parkes	Maximilian Artajo
bob	Patrick Monckton	Frank Schröder
Mr. Brown	James Booth	Friedrich Georg Beckhaus
Mrs. Martin	Vivienne Moore	Margot Rothweiler
Mrs. Parker	Liz Smith	Luise Lunow
Judge	Roger Hammond	Roland Hemmo
conductor	Alex Macqueen	Uwe Büschken

Reviews

“After the successful opening credits, which played in the past, the film noticeably loses momentum, and even if the film scene gets going again from about the middle of the season, the staging is still remembered as a bit sluggish. [...] The film is not really inspired, innovative or full of energy, but the sometimes quite amusing piece of cinema that seems a bit antiquated does not hurt anyone and will surely find its fans among fans of British comedies. "

- Ulf Lepelmeier for filmstarts.de

"In fine English style, a hilarious comedy that could have been a bit more toxic towards the end."

- br-online.de

“But with the dusty sixties attitude of Johnson and his co-author Richard Russo, any attack on custom and petty-bourgeois morality is a priori doomed to failure. In general, one wonders how Johnson, after his miserable script for the mystery thriller ' White Noise ' (2005), got the opportunity to deliver another script and even direct it himself. "

- Marcus Wessel for critic.de

"Charmingly old-fashioned, rather slow staged small-town satire with dry wit and a parade role for the grandiose Maggie Smith."

- cinema.de

"A largely entertaining, initially well-developed and brilliantly played black-humor comedy, which falls significantly in the last third and is exhausted in idle silliness."

- Lexicon of international film