Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Winterbottom, 2005)IMDB LinkAccording to what I read on the internet, the book, “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” is complicated to read, and not because it is hard to understand, but because the author just goes off in random directions when telling his story. The book starts with his birth, but he keeps getting distracted with writing about surrounding characters and their backgrounds, that it finally gets around to him being born at Volume III.
A movie based on it is supposed to be unfilmable, so director Michael Winterbottom doesn’t adapt the book as much as he adapts the style of the book. His adaptation is a film about adapting the book, while there are scenes from the book, the director (like the author in the book) keeps getting distracted, and continuously is about the actors (who act as themselves, but obviously are still acting).
It is an interesting approach, with the lead being Steve Coogan and co-starring Rob Brydon, both of them very funny British comedians.
But like a lot of movies with unique approaches, it does not really work that well.
3/5
