Tristram Shandy

On Saturday Brian and I drove up to Denver to take a film at the Denver International Film Festival. I wish I could have seen more than one. The local radio movie critic had been attending the festival and had seen 27 movies in the course of 5 or 6 days. I don't know that I'd go that far, but I would have loved to see some scandanavian cinema and maybe one that was a Portugese take on 50's noir.

The film we chose was a British film called "Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story." There is a really good review of the film over at aintitcool.com right now which is probably much more eloquent than I could ever be, but I'll give it a try. Tristram Shandy is about the making of an unfilmable film. A handful of the cast actually plays themselves playing the parts in the film that we are watching being filmed. Most notably Steve Coogan and Rob Bryndor, who play themselves playing the parts of Tristram Shandy and Captain Toby Shandy. Have I confused you enough yet?

All in all I would classify it as a comedy, but it doesn't quite fit the mold. As we watch the movie being filmed we are also watching some of the off-camera lives of the actors. Coogan seems to never have time for his girlfriend Jenny, played by Kelly MacDonald, and their new baby. That relationship is never treated with comedic effect. In fact, there's a very touching scene in which Coogan sings his son to sleep. I really liked the way director Michael Winterbottom handled the relationship. But on the flip side of that there's a running bit with Rob Brydon's teeth and one about Steve Coogan's shoes. There's also a scene with a hot chestnut that made me laugh quite a bit.

I'll have to see it again when it comes out in theaters to really dig into it a bit more. For now, if you want to know more I'd suggest going over to aintitcool.com and reading the review there.