Big Nothing
Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s
second feature, Big Nothing, is a stylish, thriller with comedic undertones
that takes us from the beginning right the way through to the end of a so
called foolproof plan than we, the audience, just expect to go wrong at every
available opportunity. The story is about a trio of unlikely characters whom
attempt to extort money from a priest who has an unhealthy liking of illegal
porn sites and snuff films. The trio in question are Gus Dickinson (Simon
Pegg), Charlie Wood (David Schwimmer) and Josie McBroom (Alice Eve).
The main focus of the film
is Charlie. Charlie is an out of work teacher and wannabe author with a disorder
which affects his memory which means that he spouts off random facts and
figures in an effort to preserve his memory for as long as possible. Charlie
thinks that he needs to find work in order to support this wife Penelope
(Natascha McElhone) and their three year old daughter Emily, although Penelope
doesn’t think that he needs to get a job and that he has all he needs at home.
Charlie gets a job at a local IT Call Centre where he meets Gus.
Gus on the other hand is a
likeable if cocky employee at the call centre, and he is the one with the plan
to get rich from extorting the priest. When Charlie gets fired on his first day
at work, Gus takes pity on him and wants to bring him in on the scheme. They
meet at a local bar and discuss the plan where they are overheard by Josie, an
ex miss teen Oregon,
who muscles in on their plan, for a cut of the money. Naturally the plan that
the trio agree on starts badly and goes downhill fast, with the body count
increasing and the selection of available alibi’s growing ever smaller, the
three of them attempt to pull things back in favour for themselves so they can
keep the money, again this starts to go pear shaped for them as more and more
people become involved.
I admit, I was drawn to this
movie for one reason and one reason only. Simon Pegg. Having seen Shaun of the
Dead, and snippets of spaced I [metaphorically speaking of course] cannot get
enough of the guy. I find his brand of humour spot both in terms of the funnies
that he comes out with as well as with the facial expressions that throws in
too. It was not lost on me however that with the movies that I had seen with
Pegg in them he had first hand involvement in the creative side of the movie,
whereas in Big Nothing he did not have that level of influence. David Schwimmer
on the other hand I can generally take or leave. For me has never really shaken
off his role as Ross in Friends, even in Band of Brothers I expected him to
come out with a funny line or two, Alice Eve who plays Gus’ ex Josie I’ve never
seen or noticed before and so was therefore an unknown quantity to me.
The storyline I thought was
really clever, the twists and turns in the plot leaving you feeling dizzy but
not overwhelmed as they come and go at almost breakneck pace not only with the
plan falling to pieces but also when certain people are not whom they seem to
be. I am sure there will be some plot holes in there somewhere but I didn’t
notice them on the first viewing. Schwimmer gave a performance which although did
remind me of Ross (Friends) on occasion, did give a good account of himself, I
think the issue with Schwimmer is that he always has the same tone of voice
which means that no matter what he appears in we always think back to Friends.
Pegg I thought was pure class, donning an American accent for his role, which
was convincing, well it was to me, I am sure Americans could pick fault in the
accent all day long. But performance wise I think that the role he played which
although had comedy in it was more of a rogue character suited him down to the
ground and he had fun with it. Alice Eve gave a book account of herself too. A
British actress who Is the daughter of Trevor Eve she plays a sometimes scatty,
but intelligent role. She more or less takes over “the plan” from the two less
able male characters.
The ending was interesting,
and it was good to see that director Jean-Paul Andrea didn’t cop out but
instead went with the natural flow of movie to bring in to a good, logical
conclusion.
Sound and Vision:
Big Nothing had the honour
of being the first film that I have reviewed on my new TV (a 32” Sony Bravia
LCD) and my, what a gorgeous picture it had. The blacks were very deep which is
a good thing is as the majority of the movie is shot at night and everything else
was crisp and clean. I liked the creative use of the camera and especially of
the shadows within the film. Just check out the framing and shadow use when
Charlie is praying to am image of Christ. There are a few parts of the film
that crop up in a 24 style split screen, I am not so sure that they worked on
this film, they seemed to interrupt (although did not spoil) the flow of the
film.
The 5.1 Dolby Digital
Soundtrack was nice and yet understated, several times decent effects were put
through the rears although it was predominantly centre and front based. The
base was beautiful, adding superb effects when the LFE channel was needed.
There are a few music tracks that crop up in the film and again they used the
LFE to good effect creating a decent, above average soundtrack both for score
and sound effects.
Extras
Truth about Simon Pegg
[approx 3 mins] - David Schwimmer grabs a
camcorder and asks the starts and crew of Big Nothing their opinion of Simon.
Way too short to be of any interest, a pointless extra that does little.
Pegg-cam Diary: [approx 10
mins] - Simon’s turn to grab the
camcorder which he puts on himself and other members of the crew. Because this
is fleshed out a little more I actually found this quite enjoyable, a nice
little insight to life at the locations. It seems that Alice, David and Simon
all got on rather well, Schwimmer impressed me the most here as he seems pretty
grounded considering his success with friends.
Making of: [approx 14 mins] - We find out how the film was
conceived as well as other bits and pieces about the film. Shot in the same way
as the pegg cam before it the material is not duplicated. A nice extra even
though it doesn’t really add much to the disk.
Commentary:
Photo Gallery:
I’ve never seen the point in
photo galleries, I find them boring and dull, and nothing in this set of
photo’s make me think any differently.
Overall:
I found Big Nothing a
thoroughly enjoyable film with a good cast that all play their roles very well.
There is just the right amount of humour is thrown into the mix and the clever
twists and turns of the film keep you guessing right up to the end.
Recommended.