Three and Out (2008)

Truly Dreadful Film

Let's be realistic.

An Exercise In Nonsense

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

I avoided anything with Mackenzie Crook in, because I had always associated him with Ricky Gervais, and I absolutely hate Ricky Gervais. I then saw' The Detectorists 'which I absolutely fell in love with, and saw Mackenzie in a different light, which led me to watching this. What a great film, characters you care about, excellent performances, unique story line and lots of subtle laughs.

I saw this not knowing what to expect, and I'm glad that I didn't expect loads of laughs. I suppose it is a dark comedy if anything, but it delivered something much more meaningful, and I was hooked in immediately to the human drama that enfolded. I really wanted to know what happened to the characters, all of whom seemed 3-dimensional, and I cared about their fates. The performances were excellent, especially Colm Meaney as Tommy and Mackenzie Crook as Paul, but Imelda Staunton was wonderful as always. I wanted to see whether the characters would go through with their intentions, because several outcomes seemed possible, and the plot kept me guessing. The ending was emotional and in a strange way very satisfying, and not unrealistically optimistic either. If you are going to deal with the subject of suicide, this is a very effective and thought-provoking film and succeeds on several levels. It deserves a higher rating than it has so far.

Way back even before this film even premiered at the cinema, the main London Underground tube drivers Union ASLEF were up in arms about this film being insensitive and that people falling under trains and suicide is not something to be laughed about. I don't know what they thought this film was about, or whether they had seen a completely different film to me, but I would struggle to class this as a comedy at all. It's a serious drama about a serious subject, and although, yes, there might be one or two chuckles here and there, this isn't an all-out comedy and never pretends to be. It's a serious look at Colm Meaney's character Tommy, his relationship with his wife and daughter and how it came to be that he is willing to throw himself in front of Mackenzie Crooks train. There is actually very little of the movie set underground at all - it soon takes on a road movie type trip through Liverpool (with a (thankfully brief) cameo by Atomic Kitten's Kerry Katona) and then onto Cumbria and the Lake District, no doubt to try and encourage movie-goers to holiday in the area.Colm Meaney is better than he ever was in Star Trek, Imelda Staunton is there because after all this is a Brit flick and it says in her contract somewhere that she must star in every new British film going, while relative newcomer Gemma Arterton (last seen in St Trinians)puts on a Scouse accent for this role and does her rising career no harm at all - the new 007 film is up next, and the girl has a promising future in front of her. Mackenzie Crook I'm not so sure about. I was never a fan of "The Office" in the first place, but he seems to do well enough here - he and Meaney make a good team, it's just a shame that nearly all the original publicity back in April 2008 was negative, focusing mainly on the objections of the ASLEF union to a film that they had obviously not seen. Agreed, deaths under the wheels of trains aren't funny - I've researched my family tree and one distant relative did die this way and the inquest report makes for grim reading - I've no doubt that this is a very traumatic experience for any driver unlucky enough to hit and kill someone and no laughing matter - but then this film is no laughing matter either. It deals with a sensitive subject matter very well. I don't really see what all the fuss was about. I'd have thought the average IMDb score would be a lot better than it is currently. Ignore all the newspaper stories and judge for yourself. If any film deserves a second chance it is this one - surely a contender for the best British film of 2008.

Maybe it really was a marketing muck-up to put this film forward as a wacky comedy, but having expected that I was actually happier with the moving, provocative and poetic story I got instead. It's a lot more memorable and thus valuable. Colm Meaney and Imelda Staunton, just by looking at each other, convey more about the pains and regrets that life generates than many a more 'serious' or arty film manages despite loftier, often more pretentious ambitions. This is a film that actually acknowledges the human condition and then poses a rather crucial, if usually ignored question about life, and even braves an answer to that question too. How often does this happen? Probably more often in Britain than in Hollywood, so let's be grateful for this, shall we? In any case, claiming that it's a crass 'comedy about suicide' as some have done is about as accurate as saying The Producers is a comedy about the holocaust. And Tube Driver Union spokespeople: get a life.