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TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
At a brief 94 minutes, Michael Winterbottom's tongue-in-cheek take on Laurence Sterne's groundbreaking 18th Century novel is easier--and a lot more fun--than trying to take in the book at one sitting (I hung up my copy after some 50 pages, realizing it to be no "Finnegan's Wake"). And with Steve Coogan playing the titular Shandy, with his gift for voices and offbeat characterizations, the film is even more entertaining than it might have been had the director cast, say, Colin Firth in the role, or Hugh Grant, or (heaven forbid) Rupert Everett. The bulk of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" is, pretty much, a rambling aside, with tangents and digression *de rigeur*. This lends itself well to the film within a film (within a film) that Winterbottom (clearly a fan of the Manchester, England-born comic Coogan. having previously cast him as TV presenter Tony Wilson in "24 Hour Party People") has attempted to make. I say "attempted to" because "'A Cock and Bull Story" takes great poetic license with Sterne's monolithic odyssey. Winterbottom has essentially taken the Shandy character in name only and loosely applied Sterne's forbidding style. What we have, therefore, is a rambling, somewhat ragged, but oftentimes uproarious period comedy/docudrama that's as anachronistic as it is artsy. Rob Brydon plays Toby Shandy--his and Coogan's improvised opening scene is a riot--and Jeremy Northam is on hand as the guy filming all this, as is Winterbottom regular Shirley Henderson (the scullery maid in "Yes"). If anything "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" is one of the few examples of when *not* having read the book beforehand helps.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf" online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
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