Review of David Brent: Life on the Road (2016) by Brian M — 15 Sep 2016

Being a huge fan of Ricky Gervais' comic style, David Brent: Life on the Road sounded like an opportunity to relive the glory of his breakthrough.

The Office (2001-2003) is a sitcom I've been fond of since childhood and I've always loved the antics of David Brent, so t was exciting to see that he was getting a second coming with his own film. However, film adaptations of TV shows always tread a thin line and risk becoming extended episodes of their source material and little more. In the case of David Brent: Life on the Road, that exact prophecy is fulfilled.

The Office worked as a 30 minute episodic series because each time viewers were reintroduced to the gimmicks within a different context and with different subject matter. With David Brent: Life on the Road, the same central story is stretched to 96 minutes of running time, and it is done without the support of any other characters from The Office. Though the title clarifies that everything centres around David Brent, the reason we loved The Office was because of the many character arcs we cared about while the joys of seeing many characters we loved interact with David Brent brought on drama and hilarity. With David Brent: Life on the Road, the focus shifts all onto one character and actually has no development for its supporting characters whatsoever. With a script as self-indulgent as the main character, David Brent: Life on the Road gives no distinctive characterisation to anyone else outside the protagonist. Fans of Ben Bailey Smith and his prior work with Ricky Gervais will enjoy the man's hip-hop moments spread throughout the narrative, but he is ultimately very much an afterthought in David Brent's self-obsessed narrative.

The problem with David Brent: Life on the Road is very much that Ricky Gervais thinks his character is funnier than he actually is. I personally love the character, but even my status as a fan was really stretched by the mind-numbing repetition so frequently present in David Brent: Life on the Road. The film begins promisingly, even though it shows that the character hasn't developed at all in the decade since The Office came to an end. David Brent's awkward gimmicks are nostalgic to bear witness to once again, and Ricky Gervais' passion for the project remains very adamant. However, it's the audience's passion for the the film which only has so long to last.

David Brent's musical passions are put to the test when he takes his band on the tour, completely oblivious to the consistently humiliating nature of his behaviour isolating people around him while audiences get to laugh at him. Ricky Gervais keeps his energy going, but once all the comedic gimmicks had worn off I simply found myself trapped in the cinema with an increasingly depressive film. The implausibility to the narrative pushes excessively far beyond sensibility. There is only so much money David Brent can have to spend before he has no more, only so much embarrassment he can inflict upon the other band members before they actually speak up and suggest a change of criteria, and only so many reminders of David Brent being an unpopular outcast before he finally takes the hint. This resolution never works its way into the narrative; it just builds up to a sudden moment of realisation towards the end of the narrative where David Brent turns so bleakly nihilistic that he practically has to staple the smile to his face to get through the day. By this point, audiences have already cringed their way beyond any reasonable belief so that the sudden uplift at the film's conclusion has such little spirit left to offer them.

There is no development in the film. Since it occurs entirely within a mockumentary format without the crew ever directly involving themselves in the occurrences, the entire film is structured as a series of sketches cut together to create the illusion of a progressing narrative. The entire film feels too fragmented as the story unfolds as a collection vignettes linked by the presence of the titular protagonist, a link of which the audience will grow tired of. David Brent's problem is that he always has to be the centre of attention and putting on a performance for people, but the resulting screen time he gets is excessive overexposure in which even the biggest fans of the character may grow tired of him. The entire idea behind the film seems to be that David Brent is little more than one big joke, but as we learned from some of the more dramatic episodes of The Office there is a lot of room for development there. In all honesty, David Brent: Life on the Road might have actually been better if it tried harder to be an extended episode of the television show instead of being its own self-indulgent narrative. The fact that this is the one film which distances itself from the TV series too much and actually should have just been more episodic is rather odd, but most frustrating.

Everything in David Brent: Life on the Road falls onto the shoulders of Ricky Gervais. Given that he is the writer, star, director and producer of the film all at once, David Brent: Life on the Road is his Citizen Kane (1941). Unfortunately, with his excessively repetitive screenplay leaves him with limitations on how much expansion he can add as director. He ensures that the film is well-filmed and has enough competent sound editing to emphasise the musical numbers, but it's the same style as the TV series with nothing innovative to bring to the table in that department. And with such bland material, the character's legacy becomes tainted. David Brent: Life on the Road is best considered as a spin-off of The Office. It doesn't damage the legacy of the original, but it's best to be considered as something within a different universe by fans. As for non-fans, the gimmicks will grow tiresome extremely quicker.

Ricky Gervais' performance is the best thing about the film, for better and for worse. We see no development of the David Brent character and a ha gusted dramatic conclusion which suggests that there really could have been more, if that wasn't already made apparent by the finale to The Office. The problem is that the character relies very much on a one-dimensional gimmick which is effective when it's episodic and spread out throughout a larger narrative. David Brent: Life on the Road effectively has no narrative and forces the titular character onto the screen at every waking moment, regardless of if he's actually funny or not. He is for a while, but audiences are bound to get sick of him. I know I was, and even though Ricky Gervais' electric love for the character is infectious in parts, it's rudimentary as a whole in David Brent: Life on the Road. Ricky Gervais' dedications is admirable as is his love for the material, and he does find ways to seek out some of the best gags for his characters for audience approval. Unfortunately he just overdoes it, and surrounds the good gags by an abundance of plainly depressing ones which lends no support to the film. David Brent: Life on the Road essentially depends entirely on much the audience enjoys the acting skills of Ricky Gervais, but even his biggest fans may walk away from the film not wanting to see any of his material again for a while.

David Brent: Life on the Road brings in a really hilarious start bolstered by Ricky Gervais' passionate charisma, making it all the more depressing when it descends into a narrative-barren endless repetition of cringe-humour jokes which are more depressing than funny.