***/**** (3.5 stars)
Once the star of Mindhorn (an eponymous TV series about a detective who could see truth), Richard Thorncroft's career has hit an all-time low. Then a mysterious killer emerges, asking to speak to Mindhorn, and Mindhorn alone. Returning to the character who defined him, Richard returns to the Isle of Man to solve the murder...
It occurred to me whilst I was watching Mindhorn how truly strange and unexplainable British comedy is. Gently taking the mickey out of everything and everyone, Julian Barratt's welcome return to our screens is possibly the epitome of 'British humour', with gags about everything from old age to the fickleness of TV. At the heart of the film is Barratt himself, playing Richard Thorncroft as a self-centred fool still trying to cling on to his sex symbol status, despite the balding and slimming underwear. Barratt pitches the performance well, making Thorncroft an instantly likeable character, but it is when he becomes Mindhorn that the humour really starts, with several in-costume montages that left me grinning. Supported by a solid cast (Andrea Riseborough being the stand-out), Barratt takes us from one set piece to another with undeniable charm.
For all its good intentions, however, the film fails to be consistently funny. Showcasing a series of peaks and troughs in the joke counter, Mindhorn seems to lack the strength of its convictions at times, not reaching far enough into the absurdist, leaving it floundering in an awkward middle ground. That's not to say there aren't laughs to be had - they just aren't thick and fast. One of the most pointless characters, Richard's love rival Clive, is so unfunny throughout that you wonder why he was ever written into the plot in the first place. Similarly the treatment of Paul Melly (Russel Tovey) as the man with a child's mind sits somewhat uneasily with me - we are invited to laugh at him, rather than with him. It's this unevenness in tone that ultimately stops the film from becoming a Brit comedy classic.
With a solid performance from Julian Barratt at the centre, Mindhorn is a good-natured comedy that manages to raise a few chortles and a couple of cringe-worthy moments, but never quite manages to become a belly-laugh of a film. Relentlessly poking fun at the laughable nature of showbiz and 80s TV, it is passingly enjoyable. Stick around for the post-credit scene for a few more giggles.
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