Reviewed by Doug Cooper
Stars Edward Hogg, Simon Farnaby, Veronica Echegui, Richard Ayoade, Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Sylvia Syms, Waleed Khalid, George Newton
Written by Paul King
Certification UK 15
Runtime 101 minutes
Directed by Paul King
This is a decidedly odd comedy from the director of The Mighty Boosh, offering up an episodic tale with strange visuals and no laughs. I didn't guffaw once, and nor did anyone else at the press screening I attended, save for one lone guy who could only have been a fan of the TV show.
It begins with naive Stephen (Hogg) staring into space in his well ordered flat. The many pre-cooked meals in his fridge have started to leak and he then starts to ruminate on the road trip in Europe he took with his good buddy Bunny (Farnaby) a year ago. Stephen was broken hearted at splitting up with his girlfriend and Bunny thought a holiday would do him good. They travel to Poland, visiting the National Shoe Museum, before picking up a feisty Spanish waitress Eloisa (Penelope Cruz lookalike Echegui).
Stephen falls for her but is too unconfident to express his feelings. Bunny is a womaniser and bad boy, and Eloisa finds him irresistible. The three of them encounter numerous characters on their travels, including a man with a fondness for bears (Barratt) and Eloisa's brother, a passionate bullfighter (Fielding). It is here that Bunny is inspired to try his luck at this sport, but it may not be the wisest decision.
The performers try hard. Hogg is convincingly shy and flustered, Farnaby persuasively bullish and uncouth. But because the film is a mixture of live action and animation — there are no exterior scenes, everything is studio based, their ports of call are represented by miniature model work and back projections — a certain sense of claustrophobia sets in. While the visual style is diverting up to a point, it grows wearisome after about half an hour, as does the script which simply isn't funny. Quirky yes, anarchic too, but amusing? No.
Writer-director King deserves marks for trying something different but the exercise isn't enough to sustain a full length feature. Better luck next time. If you're a fan of The Mighty Boosh though, you'll probably find something to appreciate.