Cemetery Junction (2010)

Beautiful Story - 4.5/5

So I saw this film just now called Cemetery Junction. The film is a coming-of-age tale set in 1970s Britain that is brought to us by the comedy duo that is Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant. I always find myself going into films that either feature one of the two or is written by either of the pair with low expectations. It seems strange that the pair behind The Office could produce a film of any real meaning. I'm happy to say that I always find I am surprised by just what they achieve. Ghost Town which starred Gervais was brilliant at times and to a lesser extent so was The Invention Of Lying (although I did have some major criticisms of the film). Cemetery Junction has got to be the best movie to come from the pairing. It seems somehow strange that they can deliver such a beautiful storyline and flowing script but I think this film finally brought me round.

The film itself was beautiful in many ways. I enjoyed how the Gervais/Merchant charm and witticism was retained but surrounded in a seventies coming-of-age story. I'm sure the two used experiences from their own childhoods when they wrote the script as it seemed hugely genuine and heartfelt at times. The film expressed fairly deep messages in an effective way and at no point was it cheesy.

I think the main reason this film was so good was the casting of the main characters. Lead man Christian Cooke lacked some charisma at times but delivered a fairly solid performance. Stand outs for me had to be Tom Hughes (Bruce), Jack Doolan (Snork) and in particular the fabulously retro Felicity Jones who played Julie. Her performance was the most moving for me and I'd be very surprised if the performance doesn't help her on to bigger and better things. Gervais' own character as Freddie's dad retained the Gervais charm and typical blunt comedy which was nice to see.

A you can see by now, I found very little to fault this film on. The ending was absolutely brilliant and without attempting to spoil it too much for those of you who haven't seen it, how refreshing was it not to see a kiss for once? The film was one that left you with a smile at the end. Any film that can do that is certainly worth a watch.

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'The Invention Of Lying' Review

The Invention of Lying (2009)

Just for the tearjerker moment - 3.5/5

So I saw this film a while back called 'The Invention of Lying'. After previously entering a Ricky Gervais film with skepticism at how well he could actually act and then being nicely surprised by the performance ('Ghost Town' (2008)), Imade sure not to begin this film in the same frame of mind. However, I probably should have. Where 'Ghost Town' excelled, 'The Invention of Lying' fell down.
Ok, so you're gonna write a film about a world where everybody can only tell the truth. Fine. But why does this mean that people sporadically spurt out anything contained in their head? Just becuase people can only tell the truth, it doesn't mean they say whatever is up top. That's just stupid. And that was what struck me at the start of the film. At first I was like, 'yeah this is funny, but where is it going?'. It turned out that it was going nowehere fast. The orginal sense of hilarity that you get through people blurting out whatever they think, mainly at Ricky Gervais' expense, is soon replaced by a feeling that the writers stuck to the title of the film and had no way of diverting themselves from convincing us that in this world, nobody can lie. We get it! Stop shoving it down our throats. However it was nice to see how Jennifer Garner's character began to break free of the constrictions of a society with very little opinion. Also I automatically dislike Rob Lowe after the way his character, Gervais' more talented colleague, spoke to poor Ricky.
So the film wasn't great, but Gervais' acting skills; at times they stunned me. The scene where his mother is on her death bed, I have literally never been so moved by an actors tears as I was at that point. How does he do it? Of course this movie contains Gervais' off-hand style of comedy which is present in just about everything he does, but what struck me most was how he seemed to have grown an emotional style of acting. He held the film together, it needed him.
Would I recommend it? Hmmmm yeah, but I'd say you should watch 'Ghost Town' first.