David Brent: Life on the Road (2016)

Review

96min

Genre:        Comedy, Mockumentary, Music

Director:     Ricky Gervais

Cast:          Ricky Gervais, Doc Brown, Jo Hartley…and more

Writer:       Ricky Gervais

-Synopsis-

Ricky Gervais stars, writes and directs a comedy spin-off of his own creation ‘The Office’, as the infamous bumbling office manager tries his hand at rock stardom… of course with a camera crew on board to capture the uncomfortable magic in this cringetastic British summer comedy.

It’s safe to say that we rarely hold our breath hoping for something special when it comes to film adaptations and spin-offs of TV shows, especially comedies and in particularly when recent and even historical form is anything to go by.

But with complete creative control of a series which originally sacrificed longevity for quality; the ever bold and uncompromising Gervais throws his comedy hat into the ring and once again places himself as the butt of the joke, while making those around “Brent” as well as cinema audiences as uncomfortable as possible.

As the film begins, we find “David Brent” working as a sales rep for a sanitary product company, having exhausted his minor reality TV celebrity of the early 2000s, and with none of the familiar faces from the original show returning. But the dream of stardom hasn’t faded, tragically, and the film plays like an extended mockumentary version of a ‘The Office’ episode; with “Brent” setting up a so-called tour with a reluctant backing band, featuring his young rapper partner and token black “friend” in tow.

If you were a fan of the iconic BBC TV show you’ll know what to expect from ‘David Brent: Life on the Road’; plenty of hilariously awkward moments and cringeworthy  comedy borne out of inappropriate behaviour, with “Brent” always looking the fool for it and Gervais holding up a mirror to how society reacts to political correctness. But it’s all punctuated by moments of pathos over a slightly tragic but well-meaning goateed little man, and has a little more closing sentimentality than we remember from the show.

So if you’re not a fan of the Gervais brand of comedy then there’s really nothing here for you at all, but if you are, then there are laughs aplenty here, both uncomfortable and unadulterated.

With the “mockumentary” film aspect to it and the heavy role that music plays in the narrative, ‘David Brent: Life on the Road’ goes deep into ‘This is Spinal Tap’ territory with funny songs that the audience takes as parody but “Brent” unironically sees as his art.

And all of this points to what this film actually is, aside from a spin-off of ‘The Office’, but more a showcase for Gervais’ musical talents; allowing him to both resurrect and send-up his own short-lived pop career as the singer of 80s “new wave” band Seona Dancing, by writing a bunch of hilarious new material with the comedic sensibilities he’s developed in the time since.

Undoubtedly though ‘David Brent: Life on the Road’ suffers from the same fundamental flaws as most movie adaptations of successful TV comedies; firstly there’s the problem of format and the difficulty in translating a 30 minute episodic comedy proposition to a 90 minute plus film, with an actual story played out over 3 acts.

Then there’s the fact that the movie offers no real novelty, nothing particularly creative or new; but most limiting is the fact that it’s basically a single premise and one gag stretched over an hour and a half, which isn’t helped by the uncharacteristically sentimental conclusion.

The Bottom Line…

Sure it’s no comedy masterpiece, but you probably shouldn’t expect any TV comedy spin-off to be so; but “Brent’s” return and big screen debut provides plenty of cringetastic humour for Gervais converts and boasts more than a few belly laughs, and it’s a damn sight better than the recent ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ movie… and most TV comedy adaptations to be fair.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

The iconic rock comedy which truly launched a sub-genre; chronicling the misadventures of an inept, washed-up British metal band, as a camera-crew captures their hilarious attempts to reclaim past tour glories in this classic “Mockumentary” directed by Rob Reiner and created by its three stars.

Directed by Rob Reiner and starring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer among others.

Comments

comments

Comments are closed.