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COMEDY BEYOND THE POLE (15) 86min ●●●●● COMEDY DATE NIGHT (15) 88min ●●●●●
Not since Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger hooked up on Blake Edwards’ 1987 comedy Blind Date has there been such a disastrous romantic night out like the one seen in Shawn Levy’s new comedy. Comedy royalty Steve Carell and Tina Fey play Phil and Claire Foster, a couple from the ‘burbs who decide to escape the kids for an evening and head for a trendy Manhattan eatery. Problems start when they get mistaken for the Tripplehorns – a pair of thieves being hunted down by two corrupt cops on behalf of a local gangster (Ray Liotta).
As the Fosters go on the run to try and clear their name, what follows is a hit-and-miss adventure that relies as much on action as it does comedy. There are some amusing moments - notably the appearance of Mark Wahlberg’s bare-chested spy, part 007, part Tom Cruise in Minority Report. Meanwhile, Carell and Fey make a credible couple, never laying the slush on with a trowel, and journeyman director Levy (the Night at the Museum franchise) ensures the film never outstays its welcome. Admittedly, a rather formulaic outlook ensures it’s all rather forgettable in the end, but, as date movies go, you could do worse. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Wed 21 April.
DOCUMENTARY/THRILLER DOUBLE TAKE (12A) 80min ●●●●●
One viewing merely scratches the surface of this dazzling montage-based film from Belgian media artist Johan Grimonprez, which uses Alfred Hitchcock’s fascination with doubles as a springboard to re-examine the socio-political anxieties of Cold War-era America. Zapping between past and present, fiction and ‘reality’, cinema and television, the filmmaker interweaves a trio of narrative strands.
Firstly he considers Hitchcock’s mischievous screen persona through the latter’s comic introductions to his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, several of which contained a doppelganger figure. Secondly, using archival newsreel footage Grimonprez chronicles the escalating tension between USA and USSR during the late 1950s and early 1960s, which included the launch of Sputnik, the heated ‘Kitchen Debate’ between President Khrushchev (something of a ringer for Hitchcock) and Vice- President Nixon, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thirdly there’s a fictional strand, based on a Jorge Luis Borges story, in which the ‘Master of Suspense’ (voiced by sound-alike Mark Perry) encounters an older version of himself during the shooting of The Birds in August 1962, when superpower tensions over Cuba were at their peak.
Spaced throughout the deliberately fragmented Double Take are a series
of adverts for Folgers Coffee, which cleverly remind us of how even the American television commercial breaks in that era were heightening the climate of catastrophe embodied by The Birds. Through coincidences, juxtapositions and allusions, Grimonprez conjures up his own creative doubling – Double Take may be ‘about’ Hitchcock and a specific historical period, but it also illuminates our own fearful times in which supposed weapons of mass destruction trigger wars. (Tom Dawson) ■ GFT, Glasgow, Fri 9–Sun 11 Apr. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 7 May.
Based on a Radio 4 comedy series, writer-director David L Williams’s semi- improvised mockumentary Beyond the Pole follows the hapless efforts of amateur explorers Mark (Stephen Mangan) and Brian (Rhys Thomas) to raise consciousness about global warming. Sporting ‘Don’t be impotent, Be important’ t-shirts, the duo concoct a plan to become the first ever ‘unsupported, carbon neutral, organic, vegetarian expedition’ to reach the North Pole. Lacking in athleticism, equipment and resources, they pitch up at the Arctic Circle ill- prepared for the challenge from a rival Norwegian team. It’s unclear what exactly writer and
director Williams is sending up. Is this a satire on the fabled British underdog spirit? A parody of Touching the Void style heroism? Or is this intended to mock the sanctimonious behaviour of middle-class climate-change activists like Mark, who compares himself to a Tiananmen Square protestor when confronted by a 4x4 vehicle? Shot in a fake vérité manner, it’s a sporadically amusing adventure, in which the lead actors struggle to handle the material’s awkward tonal shifts. (Tom Dawson) ■ Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 2–Mon 5 Apr.
COMEDY CEMETERY JUNCTION (15) 95min ●●●●●
Having co-directed The Office and Extras, it was only a matter of time before Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant brought their combined talents to the big screen. The result, however, may surprise. Cemetery Junction is largely free of the excruciating irony that has dominated their TV work. Rather, this story of three friends living in suburban England in the 1970s is a tender, touching tale that’s unashamedly feelgood.
Romance drives the plot – as the handsome Freddie (Christian Cooke) falls for old school friend Julie (Felicity Jones), daughter of his boss (Ralph Fiennes) at the insurance company where he works. But there are also lashings of teenage angst, as our hero and his friends, the wild card Bruce (Tom Hughes), and the geeky Snork (Jack Doolan), try to navigate that difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood.
While Gervais’ comic turn as Freddie’s racist father acutely recalls a rather
unfortunate aspect of 1970s values, the soundtrack glistens with nostalgia for the decade, using everything from Elton John’s ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’ to Led Zeppelin’s epic ‘The Rain Song’, which brilliantly accompanies the finale. Executed with real feeling, Cemetery Junction shows Gervais and Merchant’s comedy is as much about heart as it is humiliation. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Wed 14 Apr.
1–15 Apr 2010 THE LIST 45