Allelujah (2023)

The darkly amusing film looks at frontline healthcare with a ward-full of British talent and wry, sly observations. A late plot twist startles but the overall position survives, making it rousing enough to get viewers out banging pots for the NHS.

This is a moving, character-driven love letter to the NHS full of Bennettian wit until a jarring final-reel twist and preachiness spoil the effect.

The film is a faithful yet uneven adaptation of Alan Bennett’s play that should have been a crowd-pleaser but suffers from a jarring collision of tones and conflicting messages. It undermines its own earnest coda in support of the NHS with an unexpected and clumsy swerve into thriller territory.

The film inherits tonal and political inconsistencies from Alan Bennett's source play, resulting in a pro-NHS protest that hedges its bets and wavers between cozy comedy and polemic. It assembles a cast of British national treasures but lacks subtlety in its activism and performances.

The critic finds the stage-to-screen adaptation a disappointment and a stodgy mess, nutritious but over-seasoned with melodramatic elements. It keeps some of Bennett's witty one-liners but creates something more like traditional, worthy-but-dull BBC realism, with a stronger postscript added for the film.

The adaptation starts promisingly as a warm NHS tribute with strong ensemble performances but is undone by a wildly incoherent and self-sabotaging third-act twist that derails the whole film.

The film offers charming moments and a solid cast but becomes an incoherent jumble thanks to a pointless late twist that undermines its intended message about the NHS.

An uneven adaptation of Bennett’s play about the troubled NHS falters despite starry casting. Eyre’s direction is blunter than a scalpel, leaving the film in worse shape than when the play went in despite excellent writing.

The critic calls it a well-meaning if baggy drama with a collision of tones, where gentle whimsy clashes with bleak candour about old age and the pro-NHS message is undermined by a key plot point questioning care quality. The execution is described as baggy.

The critic finds the film a woolly, wobbly NHS tragicomedy that means well but fails to land due to its weak narrative and lack of deep character exploration. A late berserk twist sabotages its good intentions, though some Bennett lines and David Bradley's performance stand out.

The guts of Bennett’s witty 2018 play mostly survive in this initially successful movie adaptation with standout performances. It is almost scuppered by a tone-deaf, proselytising ending that feels like a betrayal of the source material.

The review describes an amiable start as a heartfelt NHS celebration with spiky Bennett one-liners and strong casting, but notes it is undermined by a jarring third-act twist that causes tonal destruction and feels bolted on for topicality.

The film starts predictably but takes jarring detours with diverging plots and tone issues; succeeds in moving portrayals by the senior cast and Bally Gill's performance, offering a thought-provoking look at end-of-life care despite flaws.

Richard Eyre handles Alan Bennett’s witty play with care in a gently eccentric comedy-drama that balances humor about aging with anger about healthcare cuts. The critic highlights the dark turn in the last act as a strength, praising the smokescreen of wisecracks and sensitivity leading to consideration of societal consequences.

The film has noble intentions but fails to come together with a compelling throughline, feeling like disjointed hospital stories; the only emotional urgency comes in the pandemic flash-forward, making it a noble but not fully successful gesture.

Richard Eyre’s adaptation balances broad comedy and macabre drama in a tonal muddle that reflects Britain's NHS crisis but leaves fans of Alan Bennett struggling with the juxtaposition. The critic praises the understanding of Bennett’s wordplay but complains about the over-complicated narrative and baffling coda.

The critic finds the film unpleasant due to its focus on grim aspects of elderly care and offensive stereotypes, with a jarring twist that undermines the message; praises Bally Gill's performance and the final monologue as a ray of light.