Mindhorn (2017)

Review

89min

Genre:       Comedy

Director:    Sean Foley

Cast:         Julian Barratt, Essie Davis, Andrea Riseborough…and more

Writers:     Julian Barratt and Simon Farnaby

-Synopsis-

A washed-up, self-unaware actor takes up a chance for redemption by reprising his popular 1980s TV detective role to help catch a real-life deranged murderer, with hilarious consequences in this British comedy from the mind of ‘The Mighty Boosh’ co-founder Julian Barratt.

Audiences in the UK have been treated (or subjected depending on your point of view) to several big screen adaptations of British TV shows and their inimitable characters over the last few years, and no one can deny how preoccupied current pop-culture is with the 80s and re-living past ‘glories’. Now in his feature debut, director Sean Foley teams up with the film’s co-writer and star Barratt to combine these two trends and go meta, in a ludicrous character comedy and subtle critique of our society’s obsession with nostalgia.

Julian Barratt stars as British TV actor ‘Richard Thorncroft’; a now overweight and out-of-work middle-aged thespian, once and only known as the cybernetically enhanced, truth-finding fictional detective in the 80s moderate TV hit ‘Mindhorn’. When murder strikes in the quaint and isolated Isle of Man—the scene of Thorncroft’s old ‘glory’ days—Mindhorn is reborn when a troubled mysterious killer demands to deal only with the famous detective he believes is real, as the tragic actor ineptly tries to help Detective Constable ‘Baines’ (Andrea Riseborough) and the local police to unravel a mystery, while reconnecting with his old on-and-off screen flame ‘Patricia Deville’ (Essie Davis), and the life he left behind.

If you were a ‘Mighty Boosh’ fan, ‘Mindhorn’ might come with a sense of expectation in terms of surrealist absurdist comedy, and to some extent it delivers, particularly when Barratt’s delightfully over-the-top comedy creation takes a left turn here and there. But this is a far more straight-laced, quirky British comedic affair than we anticipated—featuring a perhaps familiar paradigm of a cocksure and tragically self-unaware hero, mixed with a quaint English mystery which suddenly escalates, making this something like ‘Alan Partridge’ or ‘David Brent: Life on the Road’ meets ‘Hot Fuzz’.

It’s safe to say that ‘Mindhorn’ is wacky fare stuffed with straight-face silliness, but like all comedy, whether you find it funny or not will depend on you comedic sensibilities. The story trades off taking some soft nostalgic digs at a certain type of TV character, and a particular type of pompous and hilariously oblivious celebrity (of the minor variety)—but this is no clever or cutting satire, nor does it particularly manage to sell the deliberately lame slapstick it often uses.

Despite featuring an ensemble cast which includes co-writer Simon Farnaby’s scene-stealing turn as Mindhorn’s colourful old stuntman and new love rival ‘Clive’, not to mention a cameo from one of the film’s producers Steve Coogan—whose own cringeworthy character creation ‘Alan Partridge’ is no doubt a huge influence on this film—this is all ultimately the Julian Barratt show.

Thankfully the film’s writer and star manages to unleash his own delightfully farcical and amusingly tragic creation while firing on all quirky comedic cylinders, occasionally infusing a sliver of pathos to go with the absurdity, and all dressed up in appropriate garb—with Barratt in the end unable to resist his ‘Mighty Boosh’ ridiculous dress-up proclivities. But despite his best efforts it’s nowhere near enough to overcome the pedestrian and disappointingly conventional plot, or the more miss-than-hit and underwhelming comedic contrivances which surround Mindhorn himself, which ultimately can’t save the film’s basic premise from wearing a little thin pretty early on.

The Bottom Line . . .

An offbeat little British comedy and colourful social parody, ‘Mindhorn’ offers a tantalising morsel for converts to Julian Barratt’s unique brand of comedy but not the full dish, while giving the rest of the audience a reasonable measure of laughs and entertainment to feed on. Despite the efforts of the film’s star/writer and his cringetastic comedy creation, ‘Mindhorn’ sits amusingly but innocuously between a relentless riot-fest and truly surreal quirky fare, perching itself on an amiable but forgettable ledge of movie comedy.

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