Grace Hawkins makes quite an impact in the lives of Rev. Walter Goodfellow and his family. Grace, who has been engaged as the Goodfellow's housekeeper, is a no nonsense woman who deals firmly with whatever annoys her, or the family she in now working for. The only thing is that Grace has peculiar ideas in how to go about them.

When Grace arrives, she sees a family that is slowly pulling apart. First, there is a problem with Petey, the young son, who is being bullied in school, where he is not asserting himself. Leave it to Grace, she puts and end to that problem. When the dog next door keeps barking all night long, Grace goes into action to take care of the pooch. She realizes Holly, the promiscuous daughter has a lot of admirers. Indirectly, Grace helps both Holly, and her mother Gloria, who are being pursued by the same man. She even gives a new confidence to the vicar, who suddenly finds a funny way to reach his congregation and at the same time, he regains his marital bliss with Gloria.

Niall Johnson directed the film, based on a story by Richard Russo, one of our best writers. Mr. Johnson works well with the material and gets excellent acting from his cast. Maggie Smith is priceless as Grace. Her face expresses all what Grace is going through without becoming a caricature, or a Grand Guignol figure. The elegant Kristin Scott-Thomas plays Gloria, who receives an unexpected surprise from Grace. Rowan Atkinson is perfect as the vicar Goodfellow. Patrick Swayze appears as a golf pro with a leering eye. Liz Smith is the annoying Mrs. Parker.

"Keeping Mum" is a fun film to watch. Niall Johnson has done wonders with this winning film.

This charming little black comedy should have all but ultra conservatives smiling throughout the ludicrous scripting, eluding gaping plot holes and complete unrealism with sheer likability. A friendly, very export-worthy British comedy, Keeping Mum is a throwback to guilt free, sinister joys that were in much greater fashion before everyone decided to let their films guide their morality. Nothing has recently personified this old fashioned, fun spirited creepiness as affectionately as Maggie Smith's vibrant performance for her semi-cuckoo, housemaid with a few secrets of her own. With a delightful, perceptive supporting cast, the plot may not exactly pull you in (especially the first half),but will nonetheless keep pleasant spirits anchored as the real fun takes hold. Rowan Atkinson in particular, portraying a character not unlike his famous bumbling priest in Four Weddings and a Funeral, gets to exercise more of his subtle comedic chops then usually seen, and the ensuing awkwardness that radiates whenever he is on screen is sweet and endearing.

Despite the obvious tone of an utmost fictionalization, I suppose Keeping Mum will still take a few hits for it's portrayal of religion and murder, but anyone seriously trying to analyze the lack of morality on this one will have missed the whole carefree point. The characters might have been completely unbelievable by the time this thing is over, but the nature of this kind of entertainment does not beckon one to take offense to that.

"Keeping Mum" is tells a story of the family Goodfellow. The father (Rowan Atkinson) is a wicker and he has a wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) and two children. Gloria Goodfellow (Scott Thomas) is bored with her love life and considers to runaway with her dashing golf instructor (delightfully sleazy Patrick Swayze). Then suddenly the family's life changes because of the new housekeeper (still vibrant Maggie Smith). There is a buried secret underneath.

I am not sure if it was the intention of the movie makers to reveal a lot in the film title. There isn't any much surprising turns in the whole film. It is definitely entertaining but the plot is quite ordinary and the movie just goes like straight to the end.

I have to give a huge plus to the black humor in the film. The film has its moments but unfortunately that isn't enough to save the picture. Another plus for the fact that Rowan Artkinson has moved on from his Mr.Bean days to different kind of roles that are not so overshooting, even though Mr.Bean is always Mr.Bean.

The movie is like "Serial Mom" meets "Dirty Dancing". Patrick Swayze's role of Lance is a bit self-ironic. That is a great thing that you can laugh to yourself! The ending raises my grade a bit :D Daughter like the mother...