Director Michael Winterbottom is apparently in a position where he can pick and choose what project he does next. As was made awfully clear by the self-indulgent "Nine Songs" from 2003, well 2004 for the full cinematic release but I saw it in a special preview a year before - not that I am gloating, absolutely not! This film, with one aspect very loosely based on the work of literature "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy". The pretext being that the book is unfilmable. So rather than trying to film it, Winterbottom constructs a story around the idea that a film is being made of the text, but concentrates on the filmmaking aspect. This means that he can pick and choose which bits of the book we actually see, and in the meantime the story develops more to do with the subtext, that of the filmmakers, becoming the major plot line of the film.
If you fell asleep reading that last paragraph then I don't recommend the film to you whatsoever. It is not a simple film to watch, and whilst I found it entertaining and interesting, the overall effect was one of glorified mediocrity.
The two main roles in the film are played by BBC-2 favourites Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Much of the film is taken up by the apparent competition between the two 'stars' of the film, beginning right at the start with Coogan arguing with Brydon in the dressing room about whether or not Brydon's role is a supporting, or co-starring part.
The film shifts between costume drama, mockumentary, and soap opera fairly regularly. With some incisive critique of the film industry in this country especially and a whole raft of cameos to keep the name spotters happy.
This is kept up for one and a half hours and this was about right, for me at least. One of the problems with my viewing of the film was the fact that the film audio was out of sync by about half a second! This was not good, and a suprising let down by the usually excellent Art's Picturehouse.
All the acting was good, but for me the suavely understated performance by Jeremy Northam (a local boy from Cambridge) as the "director" was the best thing to see. Rob Brydon's impressions of Coogan were also pretty entertaining as well.
*** (out of 5)
