Mindhorn

Spoilers may be in this musing… read with caution.

I was quite excited on seeing trailers for this… I love the off beat humour of Barrett and Farnby and the cast list looked promising.

Was this made for the big screen… probably not… is this a humourous film for a cozy night in with someone who has an equally off beat humour as you… most definitely.

This almost feels like it could be a follow up to the Alan Partridge film “Alpha Papa” if Alan Partridge wasn’t Alan Partrigde but Windjammer (yes it is Steve Coogan).

Based on the Isle of Man, Richard Thorncroft (Barrett) is drawn back to his past to assist the police with a case where the suspected murderer, Paul Melly (Russel Tovey), believes that Mindhorn is a real detective rather than a fictional character from a 1980s TV series and demands that he be on his case.

Thorncroft accepts the “role” to try and revive his dead career.

This is then followed by bungling attempts to help the police and a miriad of Thorncroft’s past friends, enemies and ex watch him decend in to what appears to be madness as he realises that the women he walked out on  (Essie Davis) has taken up with his old stunt double (Farnby).

Thorncroft does come good in the end, bumbling his way through assisting Melly when he realises that he actually is innocent and eventually getting the girl.

The jokes are a bit cliché, some of them rehashed, but it still manages to keep you entertained.

The characters are well rounded although Barrett does play the same character he plays in everything from the “Mighty Boosh” to “Bunny and the bull”.  I guess this is a case of sticking to what you know works for him.  Tovey, as always, plays a great character; displaying a simple innocences to the role, which honestly just adds to the film as a whole.

I love Farnby’s character… by far the funniest in the film for me.  His sheer obliviousness to others and his explainations of his own jokes and actions had me chuckling a lot.

To sum this up, if you like “Mighty Boosh”, “Alan Partridge”, bad 80s detective series or just British comedy as a whole, then definitely take the 89 minutes to watch this film.