Long-running gag will please fans
Steve Coogan movie lacks resolution, but it’s a funny romp for the initiated
Alan Partridge Starring: Steve Coogan,
Colm Meaney Directed by: Declan Lowney Running time: 90 minutes
There are two Steve Coogans, and they meet in Alan Partridge.
The first is the creator, writer and star of such classic turn-of-the-century British television as Coogan’s Run, Saxondale and I’m Alan Partridge.
The second, more familiar to North American audiences, has appeared in films like Tropic Thunder, Night at the Museum and the recent Academy Award nominee Philomena, where he plays a cynical journalist.
But Alan Partridge runs through Coogan’s life, to the point where it can be hard to know where the actor ends and the character begins.
Partridge is to Coogan what Mr. Spock is to Leonard Nimoy. In fact, since he created the character in 1994, he’s never gone more than a year or two without resurrecting him in some form. As such, the feature-length treatment doesn’t seem indulgent so much as inevitable.
Alan Partridge is such a presence that his name even appears in the opening credits to this movie. It seems to star both Steve Coogan and Alan Partridge.
So who is this birdman? His fictional biography would list him as a media personality, having appeared on television (Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge), radio (I’m Alan Partridge) and, in his lowest moments, web radio.
Alan Partridge finds himself working as a DJ in Norfolk, a rural county just far enough from London that some Britons are convinced it doesn’t exist.
When the radio station where he works is bought, Alan wastes no time storming a board meeting to tell the new owners why they should keep him and fellow DJ Pat (Colm Meaney) employed.
But when he discovers that the owners plan to sack one of them and keep the other, he wastes even less time building a bus and throwing Pat under it.
Pat retaliates by returning to the station with a shotgun and taking the owners and staff hostage. Alan, who was conveniently outside when all this went down, is recruited by the police to act as a negotiator, and is sent back inside to talk Pat down.
Pat, it should be noted, doesn’t realize that he has Alan to thank for his firing. Alan, using the kind of doublethink for which he’s famous, doesn’t seem to know it either.
Alan Partridge was directed by Declan Lowney, whose TV credits include episodes of Father Ted, Little Britain and Moone Boy.
A quintet of writers includes Coogan (who knows Alan better than anyone) and others who have had a hand in one or more of his televised appearances.
The result is funny, but it feels almost too easy. It’s not that everyone involved is doing this in his sleep, but you get the feeling that they could if they had to.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the format is that it needs a conclusion.
On television, Alan was famous for spinning his wheels and getting nowhere, whereas movies require a resolution of sorts.
Fear not, though. If there’s one thing Coogan has taught us with this superficial, solipsistic git, it’s that you can’t keep him up for long.