* * * * * * * * * 9/10
Comedy horror, starring Simon Pegg
When I first read the back of the DVD box, I somehow got the idea that the main character, an author named Jack, would be spending the film researching gruesome Victorian murders. I expected a chilled-out writer, calm and collected, perhaps following the police as part of his research, slowly becoming more deranged the deeper he delved into the nasty world of murder.
Obviously I wasn’t reading it properly.
Jack has long gone completely insane. He’s become paranoid, reclusive and suffers a crippling phobia of being murdered. He barely sleeps, has an inability to function in a way that could be considered normal and struggles so badly with every day tasks that he sets his hair on fire while doing the laundry…
The film is about a character who is offered an opportunity he will never see again, to meet a Hollywood big-wig to discuss his latest novel. It’s focussed on how Jack copes with doing all things needed to attend this meeting, from showering, answering the phone, gluing shut a window, to finally having to *gulp* leave his flat to visit the laundrette. Jack must face his fears, find the cause of them, beat his demons and try not get murdered in the process – which is easier said than done.
The film is over the top, exaggerated to extremes and full of ridiculous scenarios. It is exactly the type of story a writer might tell, which I thought was rather fitting.
The ending for a moment I thought was going to fail. Click here for spoiler
“I know I look weird but I’m a writer.”
