Comfort and Joy

This film's main plot ingredient is ice cream...but until it gets there (10 - 20 minutes in), it's surprisingly bland for a Bill Forsyth movie. Nevertheless, if you can make it through that beginning, you're in for a treat...maybe not on the order of a pint of Ben and Jerry's, but at least a fudgsicle from the corner mini-mart. It's also an unsung Christmas movie, good to check out if you're tired of seeing It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story over and over. Cheerio, folks!

It's instructive to look at Bill Forsyth's mid-Eighties comedy in light of the Alan Partridge cycle of television shows, in which Steve Coogan portrayed a monstrously egotistical radio presenter completely unaware of the fact that everyone hates him, and would rather see him off the airwaves as soon as possible. Likewise Bill Paterson's "Dickie" (actually Alan) Bird comes across as someone so wrapped up in his radio persona that he cannot see what's happening around him. In the ersatz world of jingles, pop music, and inane chatter, he is a big star; to everyone else he is nothing but a pain. It's thus hardly surprising that his long-time girlfriend Maddy (Eleanor David) chooses to move out.

Set around Christmastime in the center of Glasgow, COMFORT AND JOY looks as if it might be a highly ironic title for a film whose central character cannot find inner peace, and who becomes unwittingly involved in a turf war between rival ice cream sellers. What makes Bill Forsyth's film so endearing is the way he shows so many people making mountains out of emotional and personal windmills. Glasgow is sufficiently big to accommodate both the McCool cartel led by the Mafia-style boss (Roberto Bernardi), as well as the more fly-by- night outfit led by Trevor (Alex Norton). It is simply pride - as well as other issues - that prevents them from arriving at a deal.

As the action unfolds, however, so Alan/Dickie undergoes something of a change of character. He finds out that he can make things happen - not by trying to sustain his arrogant radio persona, but rather treating people on their own terms. He manages to find a particularly satisfying resolution to bring the two sides in the ice cream war together, leaving him ready and willing to face the world with renewed vigor. He might be on his own on Christmas Day, but he understands the importance now of maintaining relationships, both personal and public.

Shot in muddy color in perhaps the most anti-Thatcherite of cities, COMFORT AND JOY offers a glimpse of life beyond the mid-1980s illusion of prosperity and individual self-improvement. People struggle to survive in this city in whatever way they can, even if it means selling ice cream for a living. Their world deserves to be recognized, even though very different from English life at the same time.

The film is replete with memorable cameos, from Scottish actor Rikki Fulton's Hilary - Alan's smooth-talking boss who thinks his star employee has gone barking mad - to C. P. (aka Clare) Grogan's stellar turn as Charlotte. COMFORT AND JOY might be a film with a morally soft center, but it manages to make some acute social observations along the way.

At times the plot slows down to the point of drudgery. The script is not the wittiest or not nearly the most clever by Forsythe standards. Yet, by the end of the film I felt I had seen a truly wonderful little movie--charming, elusive, touching, like the remembrance of a Christmas wish from childhood.

But, perhaps because we can all too well identify with the loss that Bill Patterson's character is trying to deal with (the best thing that could have happened to him, really) and his catharsis so delicately drawn, that the film is so satisfying. Many of my friends could not recognize its quality. Sad for them. There are great messages here, important ones, not the least of which, but perhaps the most sentimental, and (dare I say?) the true meaning of Christmas: to lose one's life is to find it.

Bravo, Mr. Forsythe, et al. Bravo, indeed. (Bill Patterson is gold!)

Excellent movie - the only sad thing is that it's taken me so long to see it. Quite different from Gregory's Girl: it's probably not quite as charming but I think it's equally quirky and has a better storyline. Great acting as well, while managing to maintain that same freshness that we saw in Gregory's Girl.

Comfort and Joy had all the ingredients to be a true British classic. Fine actors, good director and the backdrop of 1980s Glasgow - a city in transition where a real ice-cream van territorial war (involving drug gangs) was escalating during the depths of Thatcherism.

Being a resident in Glasgow at the time and witnessing the devastation of Thatcherism on my home city, that included, high unemployment, low economic growth combined with the break up of communities - as inner city slums were being demolished and extended peripheral housing estates were growing - there was a formidable background to work with and make a film of true social comment. Instead Forsyth indulged in whimsy with a script that one might have come from the basement floor of the then derelict Ealing Studios.

With the material available, this could have been a very different film in the hands of say directors such as Ken Loach or John McKenzie. However the script is pretty lame, though it has some witty moments it lacks real punch.

In the lead role, Bill Paterson as savvy DJ Alan "Dickie" Bird carries the movie. His performance is a pre-curser to his excellent acting as gangster Ally Fraser in the TV series Auf Wiedersehen Pet some three years later.

The premise of the film is, DJ Dickie Bird gets caught up in an ice cream turf war and acts as mediator between the two gangs to bring about a peaceful workable solution.

In terms cinematography, its filmed quite well, some of the scenes are in exact locations where I grew up and Forsyth uses the camera to effectively capture the atmosphere of the time and place. However it's the plot and script that disappoint and leave one thinking what might have been had the comedy been darker and the plot more realistic.

In the end, just like ice cream and a City undergoing massive changes, Comfort and Joy simply melts aways into the mundane but the film might be remembered as a a marker for Paterson's progress as an leading actor and for those who might want to see Glasgow through Forsyth's lens in the grip of Thatcherism.