Long in development, Douglas Adams' uber cult novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy finally gets its eagerly awaited big screen treatment. While
some may feel that the gestation process demands a masterpiece, first-time director Garth Jennings - previously best known for Blur's superlative Coffee and TV video - supplies an easy hand, bringing a loose, easy-going knockabout charm to the adaptation, suiting its - relatively speaking - budgetary limitations. Arthur Dent (The Office's Martin Freeman) is having a seriously bad day. After discovering that his house is about to be demolished, his best mate Ford Prefect (Mos Def) takes the opportunity to inform him that the end of the world is nigh. Or more precisely that he's actually an alien and the earth is about to be destroyed to make way for an inter-galactic by-pass. Prefect and Dent hightail it off our doomed planet quick smart and one run-in with some aliens with dubious hygiene issues later, they find themselves onboard the ship of Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), along with his crew Marvin the Paranoid Android (voiced by a withering Alan Rickman) and Trillion (Zooey Deschanel). Adventures, and the odd romantic entanglement follow.
Those familiar with Adams' work will need little excuse to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but even viewers who haven't been seduced by its charms should find plenty to enjoy here. Thankfully resisting the temptation to drown every scene in CGI hysterics, Garth Jennings focuses on Adams' absurd, off-kilter humour, fashioning an engagingly askew slice of sci-fi comedy, which is very British in terms of tone and delivery. Slightly more problematic is the fact that any semblance of real drama is side-stepped in favour of (albeit usually decent) humour, but the eccentricities of the material makes for pleasantly diverting viewing, even if it's never quite compelling.
