Review of A Cock and Bull Story (2005) by Antony S — 02 Dec 2006

A film about the filming of an 'unfilmable' story, Michael Winterbottom rebounds gracefully from the career nadir of 9 Songs to deliver a sharp and witty indie comedy.

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play the lead parts and themselves, in both instances trying to upstage one another, and are bolstered by a score of actors of varying fame. Realising the difficulty of adapting the source material ('The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' by Laurence Sterne), the story instead focusses on the production and the novel/idiotic attempts to circumnavigate the complex plot. Cue one of the greatest impromtu plot functions, Coogan immersed upside down in a giant womb! The tale itself then, is not only funny, but a sublime examination of the assumption of alpha-male status, and the impossibility of maintaining integrity in a business mostly designed for simple entertainment.

Watch especially for Coogan's attempts to woo a girl by talking about Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Brydon's conviction that every Coogan performance is essentially Roger Moore!