The Greatest Trick

Pretty tricky to categorize, this - an adaptation of the apparently unfilmable novel Tristram Shandy (I haven’t read it, so I wouldn’t know) which does exactly what it says on the tin: presents a story that is a load of rubbish. It claims cleverness in every frame, but in fact falls short on a regular basis.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film is a mixture of footage from an adaptation of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, and behind the scenes ‘making-of’ footage of the actors and film crew going through the creative process in making said film, along with a little extra “depth” in Coogan’s personal story while this film is being made. This may sound confusing reading it here, but when watching, things become a bit clearer. So we begin with Coogan playing Shandy, then Shandy’s father, then Coogan playing Coogan takes over, and this is actually what we follow for the majority of the movie. And what is important to notice, and what is really the movie’s downfall in fact, is that when Coogan and Brydon play themselves, they are still playing roles, playing versions of themselves if you like - and Steve Coogan’s alternative version of himself isn’t pleasant at all.

I’m guessing this is all supposed to be part of the joke and the cleverness of it, but it didn’t wash with this viewer - it just made me more certain about the vanity-project-ness of the whole thing - “Oh, look, aren’t I clever for being able to play about 6 roles in a film, some of which are kind of like me but nastier so we must make sure he changes to become nice by the end, and we can even make ironic gags about me wanting to be the star of the film in the script about the film, blah blah blah…” It just ends up as a big ego-trip as far as one can tell, with the most consistently funny actor and character (Rob Brydon) sidelined in the film, just as they joke about his character being sidelined in the movie they are making. It also seems like they were actually going to try to film Tristram Shandy and gave up due to it being difficult, so made this other cinematic half-breed instead. It’s neither period piece nor making-of nor mockumentary - it’s just a bit of a mess.

Which is not to say that there is nothing good about the film - there are some nice gags, particularly about actorly vanity and the weird people you get on film sets (an amusing example being Mark Williams as a self-appointed historical adviser on the Tristram Shandy adaptation), and Brydon in particular is worth watching as the warmer and funnier of the two. But what you mostly get after watching it, along with its sexual references and swearing, is a nagging sense that there could be a good adaptation of this novel to be made - but this wasn’t it AND the alternative experiment didn’t really work either.