Movie Review – Topsy-Turvy

Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Following the success of Secrets & Lies, Mike Leigh got more financial backing for his next project. It would be his first foray into making a historical film, and of course, it would focus on something closely associated with the British. In this case it was the comic operas of Gilbert & Sullivan. While critics loved the picture & it won two Oscars for design, audiences did not show up like they did for the last one. Topsy-Turvy failed to make back its budget, but this would not be the end of Leigh’s exploration of England’s past. In the meantime, he gave us a very different style of historical film that doesn’t try to hide some of the uglier aspects of the time.

Instead of telling the whole story of Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner) and W.S. Gilbert’s (Jim Broadbent) career, Topsy-Turvy focuses on the fifteen months leading up to their debut of The Mikado. This would become the most internationally successful of the duo’s work, which came during a time when the collaboration was on the verge of collapse. Gilbert & Sullivan’s latest, Princess Ida, flopped at the Savoy Theater. Their producer, D’Oyly, has commissioned a new piece so that they can immediately start the next show when Ida closes. 

Sullivan wants to make something “important” and see what he does with his partner as empty-headed fluff. This is backed up by reviews of Princess Ida that refer to these operas as “topsy-turvy,” another way of saying they have no artistic merit. Gilbert’s next idea is centered around a magic lozenge; Sullivan points out that the last play was about a magic potion that did similar things. Sullivan pushes for something of “human interest.” Gilbert refuses to budge. That is until he attends a public exhibition of Japanese culture and is exposed to Japanese opera. He becomes obsessed and starts writing a story, for which Sullivan agrees to compose the music.

Throughout the film, we shift perspective from the creators to the producers and the performers. There’s never a sense of an overarching plot, just people who work in the arts living their lives. Cast members chat backstage, sharing gossip or a bit of lunch before they collectively go to negotiate their contracts. Gilbert brings Japanese women from the exhibition he visited to model movement for his actresses, which creates conflict with his choreographer (a young Andy Serkis). Costumes are ill-fitting, leading to comical interactions during rehearsal. We get to see the wonderfully messy steps it takes to produce one of these musicals and how this one leads to greater success.

If you don’t enjoy the particular musical stylings of Gilbert & Sullivan operas, then you probably won’t enjoy this. Additionally, if you don’t like actors who aren’t the greatest singers in the world singing in a musical, you won’t like this movie. I don’t mind these things, so I enjoyed watching them. Broadbent & Cordouner are hilarious and play off each other well. Broadbent plays Gilbert as a sort of goofy guy, not that socially adept, but very strong at constructing a rhyme. Sullivan is more neurotic and fixated on categorizing his work as “important” and “unimportant.”

What is most fascinating to me is how the reality of life in the Victorian era is communicated by Leigh. Members of the cast regularly abuse morphine in their off-hours. A single mother is a known alcoholic, but no one thinks much of it. Newspapers report horrific colonial violence in India. When undressed, untreated wounds are shown that have been chronic problems for a while. The producer quietly arranges for another abortion for his mistress. People attempt their first phone call ever, confused about how the device works. I appreciated how we saw a slice of history that didn’t hide the ugly stuff. I was reminded of The Sisters Brothers from a few years back and its sequence with cowboys using a toothbrush and toothpaste for the first time.

I also loved how Leigh refuses to hit the same tropes and plot beats we see in other biopics & historical films. He doesn’t need to have characters expositing apparent things. That makes them feel less authentic, which is the opposite of Leigh’s film career. He also doesn’t shy away from making it evident that British people appropriating Japanese culture is awkward & weird. Gilbert has a genuine appreciation for what he sees, but he ends up reducing it to some objects and images. Part of what Leigh points out is that The Mikado sort of side steps being racist because it’s more British than anything else, minimal about the songs or performances in Japanese. The sets are close enough, but this is just another Gilbert & Sullivan musical with a Japanese veneer thrown over it.

The film is long, nearly three hours, but I put that down to Leigh wanting to make Topsy-Turvy feel like watching one of the duo’s comic operas. Nothing serious happens, no matters of life & death, no big melodramatic reveals, just people putting on a show. While it’s not one of my favorite Leigh movies, I think it is his most accomplished production. This is about as close as I think we’ll ever get to seeing Leigh making a big-budget movie, and he still maintains his particular stylistics & authenticity.