Mr Garden

After mediocre initial reviews, this film could become a cult classic.

It's a 'perfect crime' comedy with hints of 'A Fish called Wanda', and different people will take different things from it. There's high-level slapstick, satire/parody and a lot of Steveish in-humour for die-hard Coogan fans.

The entire plot is unbelievable to a farcical extreme, and every character other than Simon Garden suffers from a lack of depth, but then this was always going to be a Coogan vehicle (Rover 75 V6 with Walnut dash, perhaps) and he makes the transition to big screen star successfully, if reluctantly.

I suspect that as Coogan matures as an actor and relaxes into mainstream life, the Parole Officer's reputation will retroactively improve and in ten years time, this will be seen as a classic British comedy.

Simon Garden (Steve Coogan) is an "annoying" incompetent parole officer. Of his thousand clients, he could only point to three successes; George (Om Puri), Jeff, and Colin. He gets transferred to Manchester. Police Inspector Burton (Stephen Dillane) chases down juvenile car thief Kirsty and recovers drugs. She becomes Simon's case and claims the drugs were planted. He asks out police constable Emma (Lena Headey). At a strip club, he witnesses Burton selling the drugs and murdering his criminal partner. He escapes but leaves behind his wallet. Burton threatens him with a murder frame-up but later, he decides to take on the corrupt hero cop with the help of his clients, and the mysterious Victor (Omar Sharif).

Coogan is playing a well-meaning buffoon in a light caper police crime drama. He delivers some good comedy and a couple of outlandish gross-out jokes. Vomiting on the roller-coaster is hilarious. The movie could have staked out that area and made this utterly stupid. Instead, it tries to straddle both gross out stupidity and light caper comedy. It needs to pick how serious to treat the material. As it stands, it struggles to satisfy both high-minded and low-brow comedic tastes.

There are some laughs and some entertaining dialogue in a low budget film, which survives harsh criticism, because Steve Coogan carries the rest of the cast along with his Cluesoesque ability to get it right without really knowing what he is doing. This is really for Partridge fans.

You've seen similar plots, characters, tension/release "will the good guys prevail against unbelievable odds" elements if you've seen any movies at all. But you probably haven't seen too many lead characters like Steve Coogan's rather ungifted parole officer in this.

Coogan specialises in 'little' English characters (though quite a diverse range over his career) - graceless, irritating, of terrific drive but little achievement, and prone to finding the greatest possible embarrassment and humiliation in any situation. They're somewhat like Michael Palin's favourite type of characters (if you know Eric Olthwaite from the TV series "Ripping Yarns" that's probably one of his) but Palin had more affection for them as a rule.

Somewhat unusually for Coogan he displays a certain affection for his parole officer here - he has his triumphs - but this is a more conventional kind of entertainment than Coogan is normally prone to.

It really is just a feelgood comedy caper movie, with a stand-out lead character, but the feelgood stuff is done pretty slickly, and the protagonist is invariably hilarious - Coogan is funny every time he puts himself at the centre of a scene.

I can understand why other long-term Coogan fans are surprised or disappointed about the conventional nature of this movie, as opposed to his TV work. But I think "The Parole Officer" achieves everything it intended to. Steve Coogan is an exceedingly talented man.

"The Parole Officer" is a funny little comedy gem from the UK that has its share of flaws. Occasionally the jokes are just a bit too silly and the movie has a few lengths in the middle. Also, the score seems completely out of place more often than not.

On the plus side, though, the film has got a great cast. Most jokes work because the actors deliver them with such great timing. Nothing needs to be said about Steve Coogan anymore. Everybody knows his talent by now and the man is rightfully on his way to a career in Hollywood. Ben Miller can be seen here, too, before he came to bigger fame with "The Worst Week Of My Life". He's great, just like Om Puri, George Steven Waddington and Emma Williams, all of which play a group of ex-criminals who plan to break into a bank to steal evidence that will clear the name of the wrong-fully accused title character (played by Coogan). Lena Headey is another face you might recognize from "300" or the new "Terminator" TV-series. She's just gorgeous, beautiful and very charming. Omar Sharif makes a prominent cameo and there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by Simon Pegg - probably the best moment of the entire movie.

So, yeah, "The Parole Officer" is a very enjoyable movie. Not all jokes hit the bullseye, but you'll laugh more than a few times. I really recommend this movie to everyone who likes classic Heist flicks and/or comedies like "Fletch".