Overhyped Englishness Full of its Own Virtue

I went to the pictures last night to see 'A Cock and Bull Story' with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. They were in it, you understand, not sitting beside me. It was disappointing and I don't recommend it. It was about him and his cronies making a film about Tristram Shandy. None of the story of the novel came across that well, and I know that wasn't meant to be the purpose. It was meant to be about this egotistical man making a film about a novel he's never read just to satisfy his own need for fame, and that that's meant to be a sardonic and critical swipe at himself. If it was the labour party making the movie, the 'message' that they'd want you to get is "what a smart and self-effacing guy setting himself up as the 'cock of all his own jests', and who is so humble that he can even play himself as not very funny and pretty self-obsessed". This intention is the best evidence that Steve Coogan really is the guy he seems to be taking off. Rob Brydon is employed in the film seemingly because he can do a good Steve Coogan impersonation, as well as other funny voices, and it is his sporadic conversations with Coogan that provide the humour that the film does have. At one stage, in a 'behind the scenes' script meeting, Steve Coogan is asked why they are spending a year making this film about 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy' anyway, and he says to make something that's funny. He declares that this is enough of a justification if it is very, very funny. Given that criterion, this film was a waste of a year. It'll not kill you to go to see it. It is pleasant in parts. But at the end, I had the feeling that it hadn't really started yet, which I suppose is one thing that it had in common with the Life of Tristram Shandy.