Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie review: A shot in the arm for post-Brexit Britain

'It certainly makes better use of its armies of celebrities than was managed in Zoolander 2'

Dir: Mandie Fletcher, 91 mins, starring: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, Celia Imrie, Chris Colfer, Kathy Burke

The real mystery in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is that there is absolutely no sign of Victoria Beckham in the film. Every other celebrity imaginable puts in an appearance. The filmmakers hit us with a relentless barrage of cameos. Jean Paul Gaultier is a beachcomber with a metal detector; Mad Men’s Jon Hamm is chatting up Kate Moss at a party; Emma Bunton is on child minding duty; Jerry Hall is droning on and on and on about her Chanel accoutrements; Orla Guerin and Jeremy Paxman are discussing the disappearance of a supermodel as if it is a matter beyond national importance; and even Dame Edna Everage is spotted taking a dip in a pool in a hotel on the Riviera.

For a post-Brexit Britain looking for something to cheer it up, this film is a shot in the arm. It could be argued that its heroine Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) is the perfect symbol for her teetering country as it wrestles with its identity. With her domineering behaviour and delusions of grandeur, she’s the guest everyone wants to avoid at parties.

The Europeans aren’t very keen on her either when she and her sidekick Patsy (Joanna Lumley) arrive in Cannes, on the run from the "pigs" and in search of the high life. You can’t help but feel a stab of pity for her when Stella McCartney throws a brick through her window and she reacts with child-like delight. (It’s the only gift she has ever received from Stella).

Turning sitcoms into coherent feature-length movies is a fraught business. Absolutely Fabulous doesn’t even really try. In terms of narrative, the film is feeble in the extreme."Kate Moss is changing her PR!", is the slither of information that sets the plot in motion. Edina wants the job. She’s on her uppers. Her credit cards are "broken", Lulu is angry with her and the champagne is very fast running out.

"Blah Blah blah blah", read most of the pages of Edina’s dictated autobiography (which she is trying to flog to publisher Random Penguin) and "blah blah blah blah" just about sums up the storyline too. The comedy here is rooted in character.

Saunders and Lumley are magnificent comic performers who know just how to be grotesque and ingratiating at the same time. The best moments here invariably involve Edina and Patsy together. There’s a wonderful moment early on in which they’re in the bathroom together, very hungover. Edina is fretting about her weight ("I think I am now officially fatter sideways than I am front on"), while Patsy is trying to console her.

"I am your mirror", she tells her friend, In each other's eyes, they are indeed both gorgeous. It’s just a pity others don’t see them the same way. Edina’s hilariously misfiring attempts at Buddhist meditation do nothing to calm her down.

Ab Fab has a double-edged relationship with mindless celebrity culture. It satirises the vacuous narcissism of the supermodels, designers, and Euro-trash jet set. At the same time, the film flatters these celebs and delights in their lifestyle - one reason why they’re all so keen to appear in it. Edina and Patsy are both the butts of the joke and the ones who continually show up the idiocy and vanity around them. They can’t hide their glee at being pampered in an ultra-luxurious Antibes hotel, but that doesn’t stop them from stubbing out a fag in the oysters.

There are moments here that make you groan and remind you of other half-baked big spin-offs from TV comedies (for example, Morecambe and Wise vehicle That Riviera Touch). Thankfully, Saunders and Lumley bring such zest to the film that its clunkier moments are easily overlooked. It certainly makes better use of its armies of celebrities than was managed in Zoolander 2.