Allelujah is positioned as a feel good, crowd pleasing flick populated by senior citizens, capturing a similar spirit and audience of films like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel or Book Club.

 

Unfortunately, due to a mixture of competing tones and themes, Allelujah fails to deliver a crowd pleasing hit.

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When the geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital is threatened with closure, it fights back by galvanising the local community. The hospital invites a news crew to film the preparations for a concert honouring its most distinguished nurse. 

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Narratively, Allelujah starts off in good stead, establishing the characters, both patients and staff, that populate the Beth geriatric hospital. Threatened with closure, the patients, staff, and wider community set out to save the Beth. 

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Without giving away too much of the story, it's in the second and particularly the third act where Allelujah begins to stumble. I enjoy a film that squashes my preconceived notions of the piece, but it has to be earned, not sprung on the audience from out of nowhere. In doing so, Allelujah ends up by not being the feel good film it purports to be, but something altogether different. The last scene of the film, while very well intentioned, becomes very preachy in a way that is condescending both of the audience and of the subject on which it preaches. 

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The ensemble cast is populated by veteran British actors of stage and screen who are utterly flawless, with Jennifer Saunders, essentially in the lead role, giving a particularly nuanced performance. 

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Unfortunately, due to a mixture of competing tones and themes, Allelujah fails to deliver a crowd pleasing hit.