Mindhorn

An out-of-work actor (Julian Barratt) who once starred in a successful TV show in the '80s is called back to reprise his role - except this time, he's helping the police track a serial killer who'll only speak to Mindhorn, the character he once played.

In comedy, there's one character that's frequently used but is often difficult to get right - the pompous, arrogant fool. For every Ron Burgundy, there's about ten characters in lesser comedies which fail to hit the mark. At the core of this character is always that they're a little pathetic and sad, but you still want them to succeed in spite of themselves and their self-sabotaging ways. With Mindhorn, the premise gives enough rope for the character to have a chance at redemption and make a hames of it in the process.

Julian Barratt is Richard Thorncroft, a broke and under-employed actor whose best years are behind him. After walking off the TV series that made his name to pursue acting in Hollywood, he's now reduced to commercials for socks and bluffing his way into auditions with Kenneth Branagh. Meanwhile, a brutal murder on the Isle Of Man is committed by a man who will only speak to Mindhorn, the character Thorncroft played with a bionic eye that can see the truth. Police contact Thorncroft, he's sent to the Isle Of Man and the story goes from there.

Like Anchorman, the film relies heavily on the characters to do the lifting than the premise itself. Julian Barratt, late of such cult comedies like The Mighty Boosh and Garth Merenghi's Darkplace, is reliably up to the task of playing a buffoonish actor and draws on the likes of David Suchet and John Nettles for inspiration. The comedy comes in all shapes - some physical, some from the costume, some from awkward moments and overzealous acting - but it all lands. He and writer Simon Farnaby, who also plays a Geert Wilders-lookalike former stuntman, are the two most outsized characters in the film and the interplay between them is easy and funny. However, some of the best moments come when Mindhorn is pitted against straight-faced character actors like Andrea Riseborough and David Schofield.

As mentioned, the premise of the film is somewhat daft, but it's enough to keep you reasonably invested in the story. Moreover, the direction and editing works well and keeps the film moving. There's no extended, five-minute sequence of a joke running on and on for the sake of padding like so many comedies of this ilk. Instead, they're delivered quickly and succinctly before it's on to the next one. In fact, one complaint is that the film doesn't really give a chance to let the jokes settle before they're on to the next one. The tone, however, does shift from zany to cringe quite sharply in places and it does feel like there were two opposing camps in the writer's room.

While a balance between the two is good, you get the sense that had one won out more than the other, this could have been a much different - and probably stronger - film in the process. That's not to say the film isn't funny, it really is. Julian Barratt ably carries the film through and makes for a lot of laughs, and the character is one that could easily return to our screens for either a TV series or a sequel.

Overall, Mindhorn is a well-crafted comedy that has a lot to like and a lot to laugh about. Recommended.