Rating: 
Summary: Gilbert & Sullivan prepare to produce "The Mikado"
Review: The first half of "Topsy-Turvy," Mike Leigh's enjoyable period piece about the London theater late in the time of good Queen Victoria, is about the famous comic operetta team of Gilbert & Sullivan not writing another show. Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner) has been knighted by her Majesty and now wants to devote his talent to composing a serious opera before he dies and wants nothing to do with the world of topsy-turvy that writer William S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) keep revisiting. The pair have done 10 shows together and the latest, "Princess Ida," has close early, forcing impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte (Ron Cook) to get in the business of putting on revivals ("The Sorcerer"). But while Sullivan is off in a Paris bordello, presumably being inspired to write his serious opus, Gilbert's long suffering wife, Kitty (Lesley Manville) drags him off for some diverting entertainment at a performance of a Japanese Kabuki play. Gilbert picks up a samurai sword and eventually there comes the moment when we know from the look in his eyes that he has come up with the idea for "The Mikado." The second half of "Topsy-Turvy" has to do with the preparation for the first performance of "The Mikado," and except for a scene in which he pleasantly takes the orchestra to task for its mistakes during the first run through of a song, Sullivan disappears and Gilbert takes over. This is rather ironic because on opening night Gilbert will not appear until the curtain call while Sullivan is done in the pit leading everyone through their paces. The actual performances are cut into the film during the preparation stages, giving us a taste of the polished finish product while Gilbert correct, revises, and cuts the work as we go merrily along. Besides, with all his high profile character work and Oscar win for "Iris," Broadbent has become something of a star, or at least a recognizable face with a name that everyone now knows, since this film came out. There are lots of films with nice auditions sequences ("Fame" and "A Chorus Line" immediately come to mind), but few that have dealt with the rehearsal process to this extent ("All That Jazz" and "Stage Door" have a couple of choice scenes). I admit I am not familiar enough with the works of Gilbert & Sullivan to enjoy "Topsy-Turvy" on those grounds, but as someone who has been in their share of dramatic productions (including a musical) I loved the details of preparation depicted in the film and the fact that Gilbert actually had a heart along with that coin counting mind. But if you do not have any theater blood in your veins, then I suspect this 2000 film will be a tad too tedious for you.
Rating:
Summary: Mike Leigh at his best
Review: Mike Leigh directs movies like no one else: He lets his actors control a scene more than most directors would allow, to the point where sometimes there is no script per se. Topsy Turvy is a tight, wonderfully written story, and yet there is still that freshly candid feel to many of the scenes because of Leigh's signature relinquishing of control. The story of Gilbert and Sullivan's creative struggle before the inception of The Mikado is a classic tale of artistic partnership and of the lost-and-found muse. If you have ever, as a writer or musician, found yourself in the doldrums of creativity and struggled through it, this movie is a wonderful articulation of the tedium and exultation of that process. The love and resentment between Gilbert and Sullivan are beautifully characterized by Broadbent and Corduner. And it only begins there. The D'Oyly company and their relationship to one another and to their librettist and mentor Gilbert as they all struggle to produce The Mikado is subtly developed with a hyper-real texture that only Mike Leigh can possibly achieve. Mike Leigh loves his actors. He is in awe of them, and that kind of respect is otherwise non-existent in the movie industry.
Rating: 
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST OF THE LAST DECADE
Review: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences might have revealed a glimmer of intelligence amid the cheap glitter had it awarded Mike Leigh and Jim Broadbent the Oscars they deserved (it won for costume design and makeup), instead of showering accolades on the excellent but far over-rated American Beauty. The only reason I can see for other reviewers describing Topsy Turvy as a comedy is Broadbent's portrayal of Gilbert as a man of limitless wit. It is about comedy, and much of it is funny, but by the end of the film one has been touched by the humanity of its characters and the perfect period performances of G&S masterpieces. A fine, fine movie, too subtle and witty for an audience that usually bestows its honors on the biggest noise.
Rating:
Summary: Enter the World of Topsy Turvy!
Review: Gilbert and Sullivan have become two of the most famous teams in the entire world! They have reached enormious popurity becouse of Gilbert's catchy and funny lyrics, and Sullivan's brilliant music. They created such favorites as "The Pirates of Penzance", and "H.M.S. Pinafore." Ther works have been performed over and over again. There are probably at least ten G&S productions going on at the moment you read this review! However, the lives o these two are just as intrguing as their work. Their wives, their health, and the Doyle-Carte opera company of London all are fantastic and extroadinary things. This is a movie that shows the lives of these two, very different, men in Vitorian England around the turn of the century, and a conflict they had that led to their most popular collaboration, "The Mikado." The film's plot is very well written, and probably very true to the lives of the two "low-burlesque" creators. The duo have creadted a so-so success with their "Princess Ida", and the newspapers rate it above all other entertainment in London. However, they also rate it to be the same degree as their other creations, but not as successful as "HMS Pinafore" or "The Pirates of Pinzance" Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) comes up with a new script that is seemingly returning to the world of "Topsy Turvy" for which the team have becoome infamous for. Sullivan (Allan Corduner), however, is discontented with the life he is currently living. He wants to become a serious composer, of serious works. He considers the scripts of Gilbert to be of little importance, and they are always the same. The team break up, for a while, and Mr. Carte (the producer of the operettas), is forced to revive a previous work, "The Sorceror." Gilbert's wife literaly drags him to see a Japanese exhibition downtown. After a few days, Gilbert's writing block is sparked with a glorious idea. This would become the finest acheivement of Gilbert and Sullivan, "The Mikado." Sullivan finaly agrees to compose music for the work, and the company gets ready to produce the play. After several disturbances amongst the cast members and the almost-deletion of a now-famous song (The Mikado's Dance), the show opens. It turns out to be one of the most successful, and beautiful works of the two giants of the modern operetta! The film is a splendid production, to say the least! The sets and the costumes are all authentic, and the camera work is wonderful! (This film won the 1999 Academy Award for Costume Design.) Everything has the unique feel of Victorian London. The production restaging and design is splendidly reconstructed, with obvious pains! The first scene, in the Doyle Carte opera house, ushers and inspecting the theatre, which is beautifuly realized. The script has the ability of making the lives of these two men very interesting, while staying true to their lives. The diologue is quite natural and flows very well, but it is artful, and is always well portrayed by a wonderful cast! The casting is well done. Jim Broadbent and Allan Corduner make an excellent pair. They actualy make you feel that you are watching the real Gilbert and Sullivan! They portray their parts well, and there is rarely a line that is not read in the ashion you would want it to be read! It shows that historical figures have much more than history about them. they have a life! What is remarkable about this production is the recreation of scenes from Gilbert and Sullivan's collaborations as they were originaly presented on the Thames river, nearing the turn of the century! The scenes from "The Mikado" are very nicely revived, and painstakingly reproduced. The singing is beautiful, and the sets are probably very true to the originals! Overall, you will enjoy this film, and learn a huge amount of information about these two extremely popular composer/lyricist duos! It will be a wonderful experience, and will leave you with a very nice, warm, feeling! It is definately worth a look!
Rating:
Summary: Simply Splendid
Review: If you don't like Gilbert and Sullivan, you should avoid TOPSY-TURVY; clocking in at about two hours and forty minutes, it would probably be a torturous experience. For everyone else, however, I give this movie my highest recommendation. TOPSY-TURVY concerns itself with a period during which Gilbert and Sullivan find themselves at a professional impasse. Their inability to agree on a suitable story for collaboration eventually leads to their most popular operetta, "The Mikado." Director Mike Leigh's object, however, is to tell the story behind the story; he lets us peek into the professional and personal lives of Sullivan, Gilbert, and the D'Oyly Carte Company. Jim Broadbent anchors the film with his tremendous performance as W.S. Gilbert; he is infuriating and arrogant, yet plagued with self doubt and even occasionally gentle. Alan Cordeneur does well as Arthur Sullivan, yet his performance is less involving and we don't get to know him that well; but perhaps that was the point. Leslie Manville is quite touching as Gilbert's long suffering wife, Kitty. The D'Oyly Carte performers are played with just the right combination of humanity and theatricality; in particular, Timothy Spall as Richard Temple (bewildered and hurt that his role as the Mikado might be whittled to almost nothing!) and Dorothy Atkinson, charming and alluring as Jessie Bond, are outstanding. There are generous musical excerpts from "The Mikado," "The Sorcerer," "Princess Ida," and Sullivan's non-Gilbert music. There is so much more worth praising in TOPSY-TURVY, but instead I'll just close by saying: DON'T MISS IT!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely perfect.
Review: From beginning to end, this film is a flawless gem of acting, set design, costumes, make-up, MUSIC, direction, editing, and on and on. I will admit I knew very little of Gilbert and Sullivan beyond that they were the creators of several Victorian-period operettas. Now, after having first renting the film and the purchasing the DVD, I'm totally engrossed with the lives of all of the D'Oyly Carte company of the period in the story. To single out any one performance as exceptional would be doing a disservice to the other 20 characters you'll meet in this film. It almost seems as if the historical persons themselves had taken the roles, because the portrayals are so seamless, so effortless and natural. The songs are excellent, and will have you humming them for days afterwards. My children put this film on the machine themselves to hear the musical portions again and again. Rated R for a brief, comical French brothel scene, the film is otherwise completely suitable for a family to watch, although the character development is comprehensive and might puzzle and/or make younger viewers fidgety in its length. But that development is what makes all of these delightful people come alive. Each of the characters is so finely painted that you'll feel that they're good friends of yours when the final, beautiful scene fades off the screen.
Rating:
Summary: Mike Leigh is in top form with Topsy Turvy.
Review: Mike Leigh gives modern significance to Gilbert and Sullivan with his film Topsy-Turvy. Gilbert and Sullivan musicals seem horribly dated to modern sensibilty, but Leigh surpasses such thought to deliver a film showing that theater really hasn't changed much in the past hundred years. Leigh portrays life in the theatre more accurately than any other film released in the past few years. We see the entire arch of the creative process in developing a work of theatre. From the difficulty of collaborating to write a piece of theater, the back-stage alliances against the director, to the endless (and I mean ENDLESS) rehearsal process where you are forced to read lines again and again in a confined space, Leigh is dead on the money throughout. Anyone who has taken part in theatre (from playing the star in the christmas pagent, to starring in a broadway show) would appreciate this film. Other than that, the film is beautifully filmed with vibrant color to parallel the crazy atmosphere of Gilbert and Sullivan's work. Costuming is exquisite, especially the "Three Little Maids" scene. Wonderful ensemble of actors, check out the scene where Gilbert is sitting on his bed talking to his wife, it's just beautiful. I highly recommend this film, it is one of Leigh's best films, and one of the best films of 1999.
Rating:
Summary: An improbably great film from an unexpected source
Review: This delightful retelling of the creation of the Gilbert and Sullivan masterpiece THE MIKADO is as improbable a product from the hands of Mike Leigh as a Hollywood shoot-'em-up would have been from Jane Campion. Leigh had made his reputation by crafting some amazingly intimate films about human relationships in films like the astonishing SECRETS AND LIES (which features in Brenda Blethyn one of the two or three greatest performances ever by an actress in any film). The idea of doing a historical recreation of Gilbert and Sullivan is not one that easily attaches itself to Leigh. Nonetheless, this film is in every sense masterful and entertaining. With a director of the ability of Mike Leigh, it is no surprise that the film is superb as a production. Everything is superb about the film. The art direction and set design is extraordinary, and I can't imagine a historical film more compellingly done than this one. Moreover, the musical numbers are exquisitely done, and always convincing. In the end, however, as superb as the direction and the design are, what drives this movie are the performers. This is a very fine ensemble cast, many of them Mike Leigh regulars, like the very fine Timothy Sprall, who winningly plays Richard Temple. Jim Broadbent has since the release of TOPSY-TURVY managed to establish himself as a superstar character actor through films like MOULIN ROUGE, NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, and IRIS (for which he won an Oscar). I always marvel at his range and his ability to sell any role. He is stellar here as the Stoic and emotionally conservative W. S. Gilbert. I really enjoyed Shirley Henderson (who I recently saw in a great Danish/Scottish film WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF, which I hope will get released in the United States) in her smallish role as a musical performer who is struggling with problems of addiction (like many others in the D'Oyly Carte company). The relatively unknown (at least in the U.S.) Martin Savage stands out as George Grossmith, the person who not only starred in the Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, but was the foremost musical stage performer of the late Victorian age, sort of London's answer to Mandy Patinkin a hundred years later. Grossmith also wrote a highly popular book with his brother Weedon, THE DIARY OF A NOBODY. I could go on and on about other performers who stood out in small but impressive roles, such as Lesley Manville, who has a heartbreaking scene as Gilbert's unfulfilled and quietly unhappy wife. It has to be emphasized that this is not a movie only for fans of light opera. It really is irrelevant whether someone does or does not enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan. This is primarily a movie about people, about show business, and about how a group of flawed and merely human beings can collaborate in producing something phenomenal. This is not a niche film. It is a film to be enjoyed by anyone who enjoyed movies at their best.
Rating:
Summary: Rich Characterization + Great Music
Review: TOPSY-TURVY is a richly plotted bio-pic focusing on how W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan (who seemed to be burnt out and suffering from writer's/composer's block) gained their second wind and came back big time with THE MIKADO. Their very different personalities are clearly portrayed in both their professional and their private lives. In and around the main action are dozens of "minor" characters, all vividly presented. We get an excellent sense of what late Victorian life was REALLY like in London among the theater crowd, AND we get the excellent, clever G&S soundtrack that should make thousands of new fans for DVDs and CDs featuring the operettas of these two amazing men. Heart-warming and poignant, this is a DVD you'll want to watch over and over. As a "page-to-stage" story, TOPSY-TURVY is far superior to the totally bogus film SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly overrated
Review: I am an avid Gilbert and Sullivan fan. I am. Thats why I saw this movie! In fact I got the rest of my family to watch it because I thought it would be good. But...well...I was disappointed. First off, its a whole hour before we learn any thing about the Japanese influence. Now I know what you're thinking: I'm mad because they put too much time into developing the relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan. Well, no...that hour isn't spent developing their characters. Almost five minutes just has Sullivan surrounded by naked French women. It had no purpose, could have given the film a PG-13 rating with it, and quite frankly offended me. When the Japanese influence for the Mikado finally comes you'd think you'd get a lot of joy from the film then, but you don't. They take random actors or characters and give them about five minutes of development. The guy who plays Ko-Ko is seen taking drugs. OK? And...then they don't develop it. They also randomly throw in songs, and while I have nothing against G&S songs they just hurt the pacing the way the filmmakers use them. And then, the film just ends. And it ends on a serious note. Yes, unfortunately, its one of those British comedies that tries to be funny while keeping a serious tone. Note to Hollywood: that doesn't work. Then as if to cover it they have titles at the end that try to be funny. But they don't really tell you what happened to Gilbert or Sullivan afterward, nor do they really develop the impact of the Mikado. So what do I suggest to my fellow Gilbert and Sullivan fans? Buy the soundtrack for the Mikado. You'll get much more joy from that than this film.
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