‘Mindhorn’ review- this wackily charming comedy is quite something
When you think about it, comedy might be the hardest thing to pull off in the movies.
Many things should fall in place for a good comedic scene to land well. From what’s on the script to the way the actors interact with each other and how they time each and every gesture to how the director blocks the scene- it all counts.
That’s true for any genre. But rarely is the set of parameters so stringent as in comedy where even the best lines would fall flat if the timing is off by even a few seconds.
Watching the 2017 film ‘Mindhorn’ the idea that comedy works in such a tight framework often came to my mind- as I was frequently astounded by how the cast and crew of this film made the jokes look so easily executed, so much so that many times I realized something as a joke only a second or two after the scene(and that’s the best kind of jokes in movies).
The movie’s central character is Richard Thorncroft(Julian Barratt)- a TV actor whose heydays were during the 80s when he made the detective show called ‘Mindhorn.’ Mindhorn is no ordinary detective though- endowed with a bionic eye he can literally see the truth.
Now, in the present age, Thorncroft is an overweight, washed out actor who has failed in his dream to make it big in Hollywood.
In fact, he is desperate for work.
It’s in this context that a possible serial killer who believes Mindhorn is real and not a fictional character enters the picture.
The killer tells the cops that the only person he would talk with is the truth-seeing detective. The killer is in Isle of Man- the very same place where Thorncraft shot ‘Mindhorn’ and which he left behind with the aim of making it big in Hollywood.
When the police asks for his help, Thorncroft aka Mindhorn returns to the place which he thought he would never come back to again.
There, among other things, he tries to win back his ex-girlfriend from whose life he literally walked away 25 years ago. (The reason he gave for laving home then was to get weed-killer).
At just under 90 minutes, ‘Mindhorn’ often comes to being utterly silly, but it never veers into stupid territory. The performance of Julian Barret is a major reason for this as he imbues the character with an endearing transparency- even when he tries to be pretentious.
Part of the reason is also director, Sean Foley’s deft handling of the plot which ensures that the comedy, even when its out-of-this-world goofy lands softly, as though it’s all played to charm the audience than to make us laugh.
And we do feel charmed by the endearing simplicity of it all- even when we laugh. Make no mistake, many of the jokes are vicious and far from charming in the conventional sense of the word.
But when presented with an underdog who simply refuses to believe that he is one, you just get swept along, and find him wackily charming for that very same reason.
