FAR FROM GRIM

This review was published in The West Australian on Mar 11, 2016

MOVIE

Grimsby
Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong

Review Ray Chan

By now, most people assume they know what to expect from a Sacha Baron Cohen movie. The truly funny scenes in many of his films are often tempered with offensive reality skits that can leave viewers cringing in their seats.

   But in Grimsby – called The Brothers Grimsby, a far cleverer name, in the US – Cohen proves he can also deliver when it comes to a more straightforward comedy narrative, even if it’s laced with plenty of his trademark gross-out gags.

    Cohen plays Nobby, a dim-witted English football hooligan with a heart of gold (an oxymoron in itself), in the economically-challenged seaside town of Grimsby, where he has raised 11 children, all of whom live together in the same house he shares with generously-proportioned partner Lindsey (Rebel Wilson), the most gorgeous gal in the north-east of England. One bedroom in the dwelling is permanently left vacant, kept for Nobby’s brother Sebastian (Mark Strong), who has been missing for 28 years.

    It turns out that, during that time, Sebastian has become the best MI6 secret agent in history. When the brothers are reunited at a charity event for the World Health Organization, Nobby inadvertently screws up Sebastian’s mission to assassinate a hit man, forcing him to accidentally kill the chief of WHO while also wounding the poster child for AIDS in Somalia, with the latter’s blood spilling into the mouth of Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, causing him to contract the disease.

    The sheer absurdity of this scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie, with each subsequent gag exceeding its predecessor in terms of vulgarity, outlandishness and pure silliness, as the brothers go on the run to Africa in an attempt to clear Sebastian’s name.

    The action sequences are spectacular and punchily staged by director Louis Letterier (The Transporter), whether it’s the brothers against their pursuers, Nobby’s kids defending their dad, or his band of football followers (Johnny Vegas and Ricky Tomlinson shine all too briefly) in a pitch invasion.

    Cohen has always been the master of discomfort, with most of his movies containing at least one crowning moment of crowd-pleasing hilarity, such as the mankini and butt-kissing scenes from Borat, or the full frontals in Bruno. In Grimsby, the magnum opus lies in the game reserves of South Africa, involving a herd of elephants and an attempt at concealment by the brothers as they flee from their would-be captors.

    It’s the sort of humour that Cohen’s American peers such as Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, and Seths McFarlane and Rogen love indulging in, except Cohen seems to do it better here. For all his intellectual shortcomings, Nobby is a family man whose love for his partner, children and sibling is clear for all to see, and this feature alone makes him a more appealing character than a self-centred Derek Zoolander or Ron Burgundy.

    Far from the unrestrained political incorrectness and lewdness that characterised his previous offerings, Grimsby actually comes close to being a warm-hearted comedy, certainly something of a surprise.

    Make no mistake, the laughs keep coming in this movie, irrespective of the juvenility or inappropriateness of some of the jokes. Cohen is a skilled comedian who understands what his brand is, and how to make raunchy shenanigans work in the extreme nature for which they are intended.

    Grimsby leaves this reviewer in a quandary, for I found ity enormously entertaining, lack of solid story notwithstanding. It’s a far different movie from the likes of a gentle offering such as The Lady In The Van, for which I awarded 3 stars. Given the fact that I enjoyed this far more than the Maggie Smith production, I have no option but to rate Grimsby 4 out of 5.

A LADY IN WAITING

The review was published in The West Australian dated Mar 2, 2016

FILM
The Lady In The Van
Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings
REVIEW RAY CHAN

Alan Bennett’s acclaimed The Lady in the Van, already released for stage, radio and in book form, has now made the transition to cinema, ensuring a wider audience for the author’s beloved play.
    In it, veteran actress Maggie Smith reprises her radio role as Miss Mary Shepherd, an eccentric homeless woman whom Bennett befriended in the 1970s before letting her park her dilapidated van in the driveway of his Camden home. Initially promising to stay for three months, she ended up entrenched there for the next 15 years.
    As the story develops, Bennett, played by Alex Jennings, learns that Miss Shepherd is really a former gifted musician with a convoluted history. After being ill-treated at the abbey where she hoped to become a nun, she was committed to an institution by her brother, escaped, had an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist for which she believed herself to blame, and thereafter lived in fear of arrest.
    In reprising his experiences with Miss Shepherd, we see two Bennetts, both played by Jennings, in the household … a storytelling device that allows us to easily view the writer’s conflicting selves as they try to adapt to the unexpected intrusion into their lives. In a clever breaking down of the fourth wall, the two halves are in constant, contradictory dialogue about whether it would be proper to use Bennett’s experiences with Shepherd as inspiration for a play. It’s the kind of narrative stunt that could easily go astray, but is pulled off with surety.
    Smith’s character is cantankerous, odious and ungrateful, with her utter obliviousness to her lack of personal hygiene, her initially peculiar hatred of music, and her ragtag wardrobe that's been assembled from various dumpsters.
    Yet is a testament to Smith’s pedigree and fame in other roles that the audience warms up to her and manages to look beyond the faults that could easily have made her totally unlikeable had the character been played by someone else.
    Many of the laughs in this film are a result of the reaction by the introverted, kind-hearted Bennett as he tries to help the addled visitor and her eccentricities.
    But there is also a tinge of sadness as he grapples with having to move his own ageing, mother into a nursing home, while on the other hand offering his driveway as sanctuary for someone of similar age and mental deterioration to whom he is not related.
    It must have plagued Bennett that he was perhaps subconsciously helping her out of guilt over how he treated his ailing mother. Or was he just keeping her as source material?
    The movie is all the more poignant for being shot in the same house and street where the incident occurred in real life .. and the real Bennett himself makes a cameo at the film’s end. Indeed, the movie engages a stellar cast of supporting players, including a number of revered British stalwarts such as Frances de la Tour, Roger Allam, Jim Broadbent, Dominic Cooper, as well as James Corden in a cameo.
    In an era of American sledgehammer comedies with lead protagonists so dim as to defy belief, it is refreshing to watch a gentle comedy such as this, the sort which the British seem to excel in producing.
    There are some false notes along the way, and a rather fanciful ending, but it remains a showpiece for the talents of the remarkable Dame Maggie, and that, in itself, is reason enough to pop along and enjoy this memorable ride through Bennet’s backyard.