Humorous yet a bit depressing?
Humorous yet a bit depressing? Basic Premise: Group of alcoholics with drink driving charges have to go to a meeting, among them is a rich guy, who can give them a possibility of a future.
I saw the trailer, and originally kept away from it as it looked like a kind of full monty film. However I have been scraping the bottom of the barrel recently for films and there was a scene in the trailer that I thought it may have a few funny moments.
This film was a lot darker than I anticipated, I imagined it to start with typical English blokey jokes, but it seemed to start with a gloomier feel. It had quite catchy filming to begin with where they used character overviews where each character in the film speaks to the camera as if narrating there current situation, I like this in films, they usually use this method in a lot of gangster films Lock Stock\Snatch\Layer Cake.
I enjoyed segments of the film, there were some funny scenes especially in there AA course where the trainer was a typical trainer you could meet on any office training course using Ice Breakers and being a basic nonce. I did enjoy the film but there were a few character developments that were left untied, one especially seemed very sad. The last 20 minutes just seemed to meander for me as if maybe the film was trying to finish in a clever way but wasn't too sure how to. Some films have based there entire story line on the last 20 minutes of this one, so the ending seemed very hurried.
A lot of British comedies say they are comedies but this is because no one categorises them correctly, usually as long as there is one joke it's a comedy no matter how dark or depressing the film gets, I can never work out how Billy Elliot, Educating Rita, The Full Monty are classed as comedies, these to me are dramas with a few jokes thrown in. This was exactly the same for this film, the script was sharp and it did make me laugh, but it also made me depressed and the characters all looked like they had no futures, I don't believe films always need to answer themselves and sometimes films that make you think more (see Donnie Darko) are great to watch and discuss, however if a film sets up some scenes that need answers and don't you just feel a little bit empty from it.
Conclusion: Worth a watch but a strange feeling to the whole film. It's a Comedy in areas, but Drama definitely up there too.
I saw the trailer, and originally kept away from it as it looked like a kind of full monty film. However I have been scraping the bottom of the barrel recently for films and there was a scene in the trailer that I thought it may have a few funny moments.
This film was a lot darker than I anticipated, I imagined it to start with typical English blokey jokes, but it seemed to start with a gloomier feel. It had quite catchy filming to begin with where they used character overviews where each character in the film speaks to the camera as if narrating there current situation, I like this in films, they usually use this method in a lot of gangster films Lock Stock\Snatch\Layer Cake.
I enjoyed segments of the film, there were some funny scenes especially in there AA course where the trainer was a typical trainer you could meet on any office training course using Ice Breakers and being a basic nonce. I did enjoy the film but there were a few character developments that were left untied, one especially seemed very sad. The last 20 minutes just seemed to meander for me as if maybe the film was trying to finish in a clever way but wasn't too sure how to. Some films have based there entire story line on the last 20 minutes of this one, so the ending seemed very hurried.
A lot of British comedies say they are comedies but this is because no one categorises them correctly, usually as long as there is one joke it's a comedy no matter how dark or depressing the film gets, I can never work out how Billy Elliot, Educating Rita, The Full Monty are classed as comedies, these to me are dramas with a few jokes thrown in. This was exactly the same for this film, the script was sharp and it did make me laugh, but it also made me depressed and the characters all looked like they had no futures, I don't believe films always need to answer themselves and sometimes films that make you think more (see Donnie Darko) are great to watch and discuss, however if a film sets up some scenes that need answers and don't you just feel a little bit empty from it.
Conclusion: Worth a watch but a strange feeling to the whole film. It's a Comedy in areas, but Drama definitely up there too.
- skelly-4
- Mar 7, 2005