By

Viceroy’s House

Events that deserve a better movie

Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) made this film last year on the 70th anniversary of India’s partition. As the title suggests, it focuses on Lord Mountbatten (Hugh Bonneville, typecast), the last British viceroy, and his wife Lady Edwina (a good Gillian Anderson) tasked with overseeing the transition from British colonial rule to independence. The film is a watchable period piece that’s sanitized to the point of resembling an afternoon History Channel rerun, and is topped off with an annoying, superfluous and poorly acted melodrama about a young, star-crossed Hindu-Muslim couple. (106 min)