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older, drunker, but not wiser

The Movie of the popular BBC TV series. Edina 'Eddie' Monsoon's (Jennifer Saunders) PR business is on the rocks. Her only clients are Emma Bunton and Lulu and she is spectacularly behind with modern technology and social media. Her alcoholic fashion editor ('fash mag slag') best friend Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) is still in tow, and they continue to live the hardcore party lifestyle despite their age, and despite the fact that Eddie is close to bankrupt. Eddie's long suffering daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalha) has regained custody of her estranged daughter, Lola, and makes the mistake of leaving her in her mother's custody when going out for a date with her new boyfriend (Robert Webb). Eddie and Patsy take Lola out to the latest fashion event in attempt to secure Kate Moss as Eddie's latest client, and save Eddie's business, but an accident leads to Eddie knocking Kate Moss from a height, leading to the model being missing presumed dead. Eddie and Patsy realise they need to flee the country lest Eddie spend the rest of her life behind bars, and they escape to the south of France. Hilarity Ensues.

Not to be confused with the 2001 French film adaptation, Absolument fabuleux, starring Josiane Balasko as "Eddie" (the film's verion of Edina) and Nathalie Baye as Patsy.


  • Adam Westing: Model Kate Moss, who spends days floating in the water, is found by fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier on the banks of River Thames after falling in earlier, partying because she presumed she was still at the same party and lost track of time. Also, many others, such as Pop Singer Lulu, who is so tired of Eddie's ineffectiveness as a PR agent that she insists in finding her so that she can be punished.
  • The Alcoholic: Both Eddie and Patsy. The two do ridiculous amounts of booze and drugs.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: When Eddie is convinced she'll be sent in jail for the rest of her life, she admits how much she loves Saffy and Lola, and that she should have been a better mother.
  • Big Damn Movie
  • Call-Back: Numerous, including Patsy's 'Gabon' and 'Flash Flash Flash!', the sarcastic rude nurse who gives Eddie cosmetic treatments, and the fact Patsy was once a man.
  • Camp Gay: Eddie's stylist, Chris.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Saffron's best friend Sarah (aka Titicaca) is not only absent without mention, but for such a significant recurring character from the series, is very odd that she doesn't appear.
    • Saffy largely and rather darkly dumped Sarah from her BFF position after the fire altercation that left her mentally ill and de-valued her so much that Saffy would only have a minute of tolerance for Sarah's mental illness before slapping her back into disturbance and wrecking whatever progress towards sanity she made. It would be more odd that they were still friends by this point at all.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: After Saffron fails to convince her now grown-up daughter Lola to not follow Edina and Patsy to a party, knowing they'll be taking advantage of her and it'll end up in some kind of disaster, she lets out a long string of "fuck"s, ends it with a "fuck it" and tells her that she can go if she really wants to, she's tired of arguing with Edina and Patsy and has other places to be anyway. Since she rarely if ever swears in the actual show, both of them are shocked silent.
  • Drag Queen: Lots and lots and...
  • Dream Sequence: Early in the movie, Eddie dreams of hanging out with an elite band of models, Stella McCartney and Nick Grimshaw, while Kate Moss begs her to be her new PR agent.
  • Fugitive Arc: Patsy resolves the increasingly bizarre plot with a final twist, which defies description. Whether this fits under It Makes Sense in Context or It Makes Just As Much Sense In Context is a matter of opinion...
  • Grand Finale: The movie serves as a finale to the series, as Saunders stated there's not going to be any new episodes of the series after the movie.
  • No-Sell: When Patsy annoys the budget airline flight attendant too much, she tries to put her in her place by tasing her for a good 10 seconds in a row. She just stands there, not moving a muscle, and after the attendant finally stops, she comments "Cheers, can't get that on Brittish Airways".
  • Old Flame: Patsy searches a rich old boyfriend (Barry Humphries) to help her and Eddy.
  • Old Shame: In-Universe. Jon Hamm lost his virginity at 15 to Patsy, and he doesn't want to revisit it.
  • Real Song Theme Tune: As in the series, "This Wheel's on Fire", however for the movie, Kylie Minogue provides an updated version.
  • Sitcom Archnemesis: As in the series, Claudia Bing (Celia Imrie)
  • Shout-Out: The subplot of Patsy disguising herself as a man and marrying a rich old woman is a nod to a similar subplot in Some Like It Hot.
    • Averted, or inverted by the confession that the elderly “bride” knew all along, and isn’t a woman anyway - which Patsy DIDN’T know..
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Bubble. She knew full well that Kate Moss was alive and well but never said anything, making most of the events of the movie entirely her fault, and also reveals that she's been essentially stealing from Edina the entire time by "overpaying herself". She somehow manages to keep her job at the end.

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