Ricky Gervais. Chances are you’ll either love him or hate him. And, basically, your enjoyment of his latest film ‘David Brent: Life on the Road’ will largely depend on whether you’re a fan, or find him excruciatingly annoying. Like most people, they ‘found’ Gervais during his award-winning BBC sitcom ‘The Office’ where he played the self-proclaimed ‘chilled out entertainer’ David Brent (or ‘boss from hell’ as the rest of the world referred to him as). So, if you’re a fan of either the character, or the cringe-worthy humour he specialises in.
There’s always that worry when a good show which is usually half an hour is suddenly dragged out for a feature length movie’s runtime that it’s going to dip in places and fall flat in others. I’m pleased to say that ‘David Brent: Life on the Road’ does not suffer from this (too much). Yes, I loved The Office and have followed Gervais’ career ever since, so I was crossing my fingers for the best. This film does deliver. It serves as a ‘sequel’ to the part of The Office which was about Brent’s life. If you watched the series then you’ll know about his dreams and aspirations to become more than the manager of a paper merchant in Slough.
‘The Office’ was a ‘mockumentary’ about the life of the workers in Slough and now we have follow-up documentary about – arguably – the ‘star’ of the fictional show ‘David Brent.’ We meet him now after he’s long since left Wernom Hogg and is now a – much ridiculed – sales rep who travels up and down the country peddling his less-than-necessary wares. However, he still dreams of becoming the next big thing in music and, rather than go on X-Factor as most people who share his ideals seem to, has sunk all his life savings into promoting his own musical band.
What we see is a depressing take on humanity’s desire for fame without the talent to back it up. Gervais has already (majorly!) touched on these subjects in his other TV show ‘Extras,’ but we witness a man who is more ambition than talent. He won’t accept that he’ll never have the fame and fortune he craves and, even when it’s staring him in the face, he will adjust his perception of reality to suit the situation. What we get out of it is the knowing that he’ll never be what he wants and, despite probably not wanting to associate with a man like this, we can’t quite bring ourselves to hate him because we know that he’ll never achieve or ‘win’ the fame and adulation he craves.
‘David Brent: Life on the Road’ is a good little compendium piece to ‘The Office.’ I guess it is a little stretched and sometimes it feels like there should be one or two jokes more than there is, but, overall, it stands up on its own. Sometimes there are more heart-wrenching moments than laughs, but they add depth to the film and make it a little deeper than a straight-up comedy.
Many people have moaned that there are no other ‘Office’ characters in it from the British version, but the new characters we meet along the way should – slightly – make up for that. I’m sure we’ve met one or two of them in offices up and down the country from time to time.
Not as good as The Office, but, then again, what is? Still solid. Maybe a feature length Extras next?
8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one
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