Lawrence Sterne's 18th Century novel, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" has long been viewed as a largely "unfilmable" work due to its enormous length and famously idiosyncratic style. The bawdy, satirical tome, done in the form of a mock-autobiography, originally appeared in nine volumes and broke new artistic ground by employing the kind of stream-of-consciousness narration and self-referential self-awareness that would later come to define the post-modernist style of 20th and 21st Century literature. As one of the characters in the movie exclaims, the ahead-of-its-time "Shandy" was already post-modern before modern existed.
The movie, "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story," is NOT a version of the novel either but rather a droll, frequently hilarious faux-documentary about one movie crew's valiant but futile attempt to bring this unwieldy literary work to the silver screen. Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce and director Michael Winterbottom have used Sterne's novel as a mere reference point for their own slashing satire on film-making in general and the adaptation of great novels in particular. Indeed, the movie is as much a tribute to Fellini's "8 1/2" - another film about a filmmaker's struggle to complete a challenging movie - as it is to "Tristram Shandy." The movie makers even employ Nina Rota's score from that film as background for the action rather than music that would more accurately reflect the period of the story. Talk about post-modern!
Steve Coogan plays himself as the actor hired on to inhabit the roles of both Tristram and his father, Walter, in the film that is being made. Joining him is Rob Brydon, who also plays himself as well as Tristram's uncle, Toby. In the modern scenes, the two are acutely funny as they squabble over how each is to play his respective part and who is to be allotted the most time on screen. However, the best parts of the movie are the scenes re-creating the novel on film, which are done with an anarchic spirit and a freewheeling cleverness that put one in mind of Tony Richardson's "Tom Jones." With their raillery and wit, these sequences almost convince us that, given the sufficient resources and the proper talents, maybe a decent movie COULD be made of Sterne's novel (or at least a small part of it) after all.
Some of the film-making sequences are enjoyable as well, zeroing in on the compromises brought about by having to balance budgetary restraints with personal egos. Yet, the movie tends to run out of steam the further away it gets from Sterne's original story. Coogan is amusing as a character when he is focused on the mechanics of his acting, but he's far less interesting when brooding about his troubled relationship with his girlfriend, his role as a new daddy or his contemplation of an affair with his attractive assistant. These scenes, which take up a significant portion of the final act of the movie, wind up draining away much of the cleverness and energy that are found in such abundance during the earlier stretches of the film. Yet, if "A Cock and Bull Story" finally dribbles away into insignificance at the end, it still provides us with an hour and a half or so of really hearty laughter as compensation. And considering how few genuine laughs one generally encounters in movies these days, that's a strong bit of compensation indeed.
The movie, "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story," is NOT a version of the novel either but rather a droll, frequently hilarious faux-documentary about one movie crew's valiant but futile attempt to bring this unwieldy literary work to the silver screen. Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce and director Michael Winterbottom have used Sterne's novel as a mere reference point for their own slashing satire on film-making in general and the adaptation of great novels in particular. Indeed, the movie is as much a tribute to Fellini's "8 1/2" - another film about a filmmaker's struggle to complete a challenging movie - as it is to "Tristram Shandy." The movie makers even employ Nina Rota's score from that film as background for the action rather than music that would more accurately reflect the period of the story. Talk about post-modern!
Steve Coogan plays himself as the actor hired on to inhabit the roles of both Tristram and his father, Walter, in the film that is being made. Joining him is Rob Brydon, who also plays himself as well as Tristram's uncle, Toby. In the modern scenes, the two are acutely funny as they squabble over how each is to play his respective part and who is to be allotted the most time on screen. However, the best parts of the movie are the scenes re-creating the novel on film, which are done with an anarchic spirit and a freewheeling cleverness that put one in mind of Tony Richardson's "Tom Jones." With their raillery and wit, these sequences almost convince us that, given the sufficient resources and the proper talents, maybe a decent movie COULD be made of Sterne's novel (or at least a small part of it) after all.
Some of the film-making sequences are enjoyable as well, zeroing in on the compromises brought about by having to balance budgetary restraints with personal egos. Yet, the movie tends to run out of steam the further away it gets from Sterne's original story. Coogan is amusing as a character when he is focused on the mechanics of his acting, but he's far less interesting when brooding about his troubled relationship with his girlfriend, his role as a new daddy or his contemplation of an affair with his attractive assistant. These scenes, which take up a significant portion of the final act of the movie, wind up draining away much of the cleverness and energy that are found in such abundance during the earlier stretches of the film. Yet, if "A Cock and Bull Story" finally dribbles away into insignificance at the end, it still provides us with an hour and a half or so of really hearty laughter as compensation. And considering how few genuine laughs one generally encounters in movies these days, that's a strong bit of compensation indeed.