A Cock and Bull Story - 1st February 2006

This was supposedly an attempt to film the "unfilmable" novel The Life and Times of Tristram Shandy. Although it almost completely ignored the plot of the book (such as it is); It was a film about making a film of the book - terribly post-modern - and I guess it stayed true to the novel's spirit.

Now, I haven't actually read Tristram Shandy. Fortunately the Guardian did a little piece about the importance of the book and its unfilmability a few months beforehand, so I kind of knew what to expect. As the book deals with Tristram Shandy writing a book about his life and portraying 'himself' as a deeply flawed character, so the film deals with a group of people making a film about the book of Tristram Shandy's life, the main actors playing caricatures of 'themselves' as deeply flawed characters.

It was quite difficult to dislike, as any criticism that could be levelled at this film (mainly its self-indulgence, as well as lack of any consistent narrative), could be seen as knowing references to the style of the book itself. That said, some parts did drag on and the continued irreverance sometimes became tiring.

Some of it, however, was genuinely very funny, particularly the excerpts from the Tristram Shandy film itself, and Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon et al are always delightful to watch. Now, there are a lot of films, like this one, which eschew a traditional plot and aren't really about anything. Some of these just don't come together at the end (see Magnolia, Lost In Translation & Crash, amongst others) and some do, I can't really explain it. This one did, however. I did enjoy it: gets 7.