David Brent
Cert: 16. Now showing
Ricky Gervais has been very clear that David Brent: Life on the Road “is not an Office film”. But it is not unrelated. It’s been thirteen years since the iconic, game-changing BBC mockumentary series in which Gervais played David Brent, office manager with delusions of popularity. The film begins with Brent (Gervais) introducing his new workplace, still in Slough, but instead of manager at Wernham Hogg he is a rep at Lavichem, purveyors of all things hygiene. He is still missing a few vital parts when it comes to social interaction, he is much disliked by some colleagues, tolerated by others and hero worshipped by one (Tom Bennett), or two (Jo Hartley).
Cashing in some pensions, savings and unpaid leave he is about to follow his dream of stardom and embarking on a world tour of Berkshire hoping to get signed as a musician. He has assembled a band of session musicians and a rapper, Dom Johnson (Ben Bailey Smith), who doubles for Brent as street cred and proof of diversity. Brent’s tragedy was always that he knew the theory to being popular, he just couldn’t manage the practice.
As the tour progresses inevitably miserably and the band won’t even be nice to him when he pays for their company, there are plenty of funny moments and lines, political correctness providing much of his ammunition as always. But Brent, who it emerges had a very hard time after The Office, getting a lot of stick and having a breakdown, becomes an almost Shakespearean tragic figure. He is admirably relentless in pursuit of his dream, he’s a trier but he fails at everything, especially life, and he knows it. You really start feeling sorry for David Brent, which is a tone change from The Office when he defied sympathy. The ending that provides the arc makes it feel like a fable in ways. Gervais writes and directs this and it does feel like David Brent is not just on the road but further down it.