THIS is a clever film, flipping back and forth between an 18th century tale of battles and difficult childbirth and a hapless bunch of 21st century film makers struggling to create a masterpiece on a shoestring budget.
Comedy stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play themselves (almost) as actors and then, just as we become compfortable with the modern tale, we flip to The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy -- the film being created from a classic English novel.
The acting in A Cock and Bull Story is, without exception, superb.
Even the more minor roles portrayed by Stephen Fry and Gillian Anderson are played to perfection.
What disappoints is the lack of really great humour in this film. Brydon's impersonations of Coogan/Alan Partridge are wonderfully amusing but the plot and script do run dry on occasions.
And I was not sure whether to be amused or slightly unnerved by the sight of Coogan being lowered into a gigantic plastic womb.
On the whole, this was an immensely watchable film and Coogan's impression of Al Pacino will not fail to impress viewers but there is no danger of surgery being needed as sides split from the hilarity of it all.
HC
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