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A Cock and Bull Story film review
A COCK AND BULL STORY
Running time: 95 mins
Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, David Walliams, Jeremy Northam, Dylan Moran
The Life and Opinion of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is an experimental novel written in the 18th century by Laurence Sterne, a Yorkshire pastor who published it in nine volumes. Widely regarded as a classic of English literature, it tells the story of the title character, the aristocratic heir to Shandy Hall, who recounts (in a stream-of-consciousness manner) his life, birth and death. Many critics cite it as a post-modern novel written before the term had even been coined, as it lacks any traditional narrative structure, instead relying on digressions, stories within stories and a good deal of what, for the time, was considered very bawdy material. It certainly doesn't lend itself easily to a cinematic translation.
Step forward Michael Winterbottom, the English director renowned for his prodigious output as well as the variety of the subjects he chooses to film. In the last three years alone, Winterbottom has toyed with the R18 certificate (9 Songs), science fiction (Code 46), and music (the classic 24 Hours Party People). He's no newcomer to making films based on classics of English literature either, as he directed the highly regarded Jude with Kate Winslet in 1996.
A Cock and Bull Story is, therefore, Winterbottom's largely successful attempt to film the unfilmable, and to do so he turns normal expectations of a literary adaptation on its head. Yes, Steve Coogan plays the title character, the title character's father and the novelist, but he also plays himself - or at least a version of himself. Winterbottom and longtime collaborator Frank Cottrell Boyce have chosen to make a film about the making of a film, a trick used in American sitcoms such as Curb Your Enthusiasm or The Larry Sanders Show, and thanks to the fame (and infamy) of Coogan and his co-star Rob Brydon, it's generally rather amusing.
Coogan and Brydon ostensibly play themselves in the modern day, vying for top spot during the making of the film. As most viewers will be aware in real life Brydon is something of a comic protégé of Coogan's who has done very nicely for himself in the last couple of years, so there's plenty of room for in-jokes between the two - who should have the best pair of shoes for example. Their banter provides the film's comic highlight, although there's another plot which revolves around Coogan's tabloid reputation as a sex addict: while he is happily married in the film to Kelly Macdonald, he can't keep his eyes, or hands, off the beautiful production assistant.
Rounded out with a familiar British cast which includes Shirley Henderson, David Walliams, Jeremy Northam and Dylan Moran, there are plenty of amusing moments. Things get a little more difficult in the actual realization of Sterne's work however, which alternately fails to live up to the humour of the modern section, is sometimes a little dull, and sometimes a little clever for its own good. There are plenty of references to Coogan's most famous creation Alan Partridge, but audiences expecting Partridge -style humour throughout may find themselves scratching their heads on more than one occasion. Nevertheless, rather like the source novel, the final film is to be admired for its wacky and unique attempt to do something completely different.
Paul Hurley
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