Dir: Michael Winterbottom

Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes.

A cock and bull story literally means a wildly improbable story that is invented to glorify the person telling it. In this instance the person telling the story of  Tristram Shandy, Laurence Stern's supposedly 'unadaptable novel', is Steve Coogan. In fact the cast of this film reads like a who's who list of British comedy. Not only do we have Alan Partridge and the comic ingenuity of Rob Brydon, but also the comedic talents of Dylan Moran, Stephen Fry and David Walliams. Needless to say, I expected this film to pole vault into the realms of sheer hilarity and, in due time, become a cult classic for years to come. Though in hindsight, maybe I set the bar too high.

The story was a film within a film concerning the making of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, with Coogan and Brydon playing egotistical versions of themselves. Tristram Shandy was a post-modern book written before modernism and therefore apparently unfilmable. Hence, we see the task that is in the hands of the film crew and cast as they battle to adapt it. The film delves into the on-set disagreements, the personal lives of the stars and a very believable, but distorted, view of the film industry.

I found that the start of the film dragged and it was only until 30 minutes in when the film really grabbed the bull by the horns and got going.

The plot is very confusing and extremely random but often very clever. Despite being first and foremost funny, it did convey the importance of getting a book adaptation correct whilst also trying to please the people who are funding the film. It also displayed the difficulties of working with a minimal budget, a rather accurate portrayal of the fading British film industry that exists today.

There was a very mixed set of acting performances. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are just symbolic of British comedy. There timing is perfect and their Hollywood Stars are rising, and rightly so.  The interaction between the two characters was nothing short of superb and, for me, the highlight of the film. I expected more from David Walliams, Dylan Moran, Gillian Anderson and Stephen Fry but they never really had big enough roles to establish their characters. Keeley Hawes was excellent as usual. She has shown what she can do with Spooks and it has transferred perfectly to the big screen.

The cinematography did nothing more than put across the generic conventions of a documentary. The mise-en-scene was satirical in the way it poked fun at continuity lapses and used costume to indicate status, but this was not a filmmaker’s film. This was a star vehicle with British comedy firmly in the driving seat.

There were some very funny laugh-out-loud moments in the film involving a naked Steve Coogan stuck inside a giant replica womb and, later, with his style of method acting that consists of a boiling hot chestnut being placed inside his underwear. There were many more funny moments which I cannot do enough justice by attempting to describe in words. One area of comedy that did not quite reach the standard was the randomness that was apparent in some places.

The nature of randomness can be shown in many ways. Sometimes it can show off the pure quality and skill of good improvisation and sometimes it concerns 'in-jokes' only funny to the actors but just dead weight to the audience. The randomness in this film was a mixture of the two which was largely disappointing. I am expecting much more from Alan Partridge: The Movie upon its release.

This was a very good film in many respects but it didn’t quite reach the standards we have come to expect from a genre that differentiates our nation's humour from every other nation in the world.

A Cock & Bull Story was a solid film, good for comedy and great for the British film industry as it was funded purely by the UK. It had many positives but sadly some negatives. In fact, it was rather like a bull in a china shop; big, bold and has funny parts, but ultimately it is clumsy and destructive.

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