ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

LAURENCE STERNE’S freewheeling 18th century novel ‘The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman’ is rightly considered to be unfilmable.

It is a tale marked more by diversions and distractions than any sense of linear progression. In trying to recount the story of his life, Shandy can never quite advance beyond the messy circumstances of his own birth.

In other words, it is a complete nightmare for any potential screenwriter. The makers of ‘A Cock And Bull Story’ has decided to approach the novel as a challenge rather than a headache, and the result is extremely clever and very funny.

Matching the revolutionary spirit of the novel, the film presents us with dramatised scenes from the text and then steps back to become a film about the making of a film of ‘Tristram Shandy’. It tackles the book from a sideways angle, and also becomes a wry commentary on the compromises of film-making and the vanity of performers.

A relaxed Steve Coogan gives his best film performance to date playing Tristram Shandy, and his father Walter. He also offers an unflattering portrait of himself as an insecure performer and family man not averse to a flirtation with one of the assistants. He is even hit by tabloid revelations of his nights with lap dancer Hedda Gobbler.

Coogan is well matched by Rob Brydon, who plays Tristram’s uncle Walter and a version of himself as a needy, ambitious comic lost in Coogan’s shadow.

With a staggering array of British talent that includes Stephen Fry, Shirley Henderson, Dylan Moran, David Walliams and Ashley Jensen as well as a game Gillian Anderson, ‘A Cock And Bull Story’ is something of an  insider’s inside joke, but one that is accessible and entertaining.

Nationwide release
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Stars: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Gillian Anderson, Shirley Henderson, Ashley Jensen
Screenplay: Martin Hardy (Frank Cottrell Boyce) based on The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Certificate: 15
Running time: 95 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2005

© Allan Hunter, 2006