Director Ian Fitzgibbon first came to popular attention in Ireland for his satirical drama Paths to Freedom, which purported to be a fly-on-the-wall documentary following two recently released convicts – one a luckless unemployed musician and the other a well-to-do gynaecologist – around as they try to rebuild their lives. The related film Spin the Bottle was equally replete with well-observed character-based humour.
In A Film With Me In It, Fitzgibbon is once again directing a work that takes the mick out of… well… Micks. In this instance, the charge is led by two characters who are making little or no headway in the film business. Mark (Mark Doherty) is an impoverished clarinet-playing actor whose girlfriend (Amy Huberman) is reaching the end of her tether with him, whilst the flat is literally falling down around the ears of his disabled brother (David O’Doherty) and he. The fact that Doherty bears a passing resemblance to Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld adds to his comic hangdog image. The other central character is Pierce (Dylan Moran), a mildly eccentric would-be scriptwriter whose first film is always just around the next corner… or two. In the mean time, he passes his days in bars and bookies, whilst being outraged at his landlord (Keith Allen)’s demands for long overdue rent payments.
Having quickly but effectively established the background stories to them both, the plot which then unfolds is one where the black humour of Blood Simple crosses swords with the art-imitating-life idea of Get Shorty. As preposterous event builds on preposterous event, any attempt at staying rooted in reality is abandoned, as the characters set about trying to extricate themselves from their sudden and utterly improbable predicament. The result is a work of such ridiculous outlandishness that it becomes nigh-on-impossible not to guffaw out loud at their bemused stares as they try to take in the rapidly deteriorating situation.
A Film With Me In It is a gem of a low-budget, theatrical-style comedy. The story is well presented and successfully relies on an easily-recognisable situation gone horrendously wrong. It is worth noting that the film was scripted by Doherty, which adds to its circular nature and explains how it came by its name. While watching it may not exercise more than a few brain cells, the film is equally a fine demonstration of how to portray a farcical set of events in a completely straight manner. Moreover, having been possibly set up for an embarrassing train-wreck of an ending, as was the case with Spin the Bottle, the actual denouement here is rather restrained relative to the fantastically far-fetched sequence of events that lead up to it.
Therefore, so as to keep this review’s final remark just as succinct – be sure to go see it.
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: A Film With Me In It, Amy Huberman, David O’Doherty, Dykan Moran, Ian Fitzgibbon, Keith Allen, Mark Doherty
