Review - David Brent: Life on the Road

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's The Office is as close to perfection as sitcoms come, and the Christmas special was an as-yet unbeaten marriage of humour, embarrassment and heart. Brent's sign-off gave great closure to the character, so I was cynical about Gervais, without Merchant, returning to visit his most famous comic creation thirteen years on. Sadly this cynicism was well placed, as Life on the Road is a retread of the special with none of the wit or subtlety.

The film charts Brent, now a sales rep for a sanitary product company (selling tampons is clearly supposed to be hilarious), cashing in his pension pot for a final stab at music stardom on tour with a hired band and rapping protégé - played gamely by real life rapper Ben Bailey Smith.

All the character development that Brent exhibited over the course of the series and special, culminating in television's most satisfying 'fuck off', is out the window. Brent is once again the man-child from the first episode, except he now constantly looks at the camera with a contorted, constipated grin, his every sentence punctuated with an ear piercing nervous squall. Gervais clearly wants to portray him as a lovable loser, but over 90 minutes we are given no convincing reason to root for him as he moves through the world in a self-deluded haze.

This pose for 90 minutes

The Office was anchored by Tim and Dawn, and even caricatures such as Gareth and Keith rang true to life. The supporting characters in Life on the Road are completely two dimensional, alternately bullies or inexplicable Brent devotees. Bailey Smith does his best as rapper Dom Johnson, and is rewarded with some of the film's best lines, but the suspension of disbelief required to imagine that a young talented rapper would stick with Brent through his egotistical episodes and constant gaffes is too much to ask of the audience.

The biggest issue with LOTR is that it's thin on the ground with actual jokes. Punchlines are substituted with embarrassment and offence. Just saying that someone is a ‘fat bird’ isn’t a joke in itself, especially when followed with the aforementioned withering grin. Humour of this caliber is recurrent throughout the film, and it became clear to me that Gervais' tank is running on empty when I noticed the script recycling gags I'd heard on his XFM shows from 2001.

The songs are generally amusing, but as with the rest of the film, the songs that land, such as Equality Street and Lady Gypsy raise more of a wry smile then a belly laugh. The opening song 'Life on the Road' is a funny-enough checklist of overlooked satellite towns, but all merit is lost when Gervais rhymes Gloucester with Costa, then holds up a Costa cup to the camera. Later in the film he holds up his loyalty card and says coffee is on him. The product placement and cross promotion are so egregious you wonder how much Gervais struggled to raise finance for what was clearly an unpolished script.

The inevitable sentimental payoff isn't earned. Characters' motivations and emotions change between scenes without impetus, and the optimistic tone is at odds with a main character who doesn't appear to have learnt anything on his journey. Life on the Road just about gets by on some residual good will, solid songs and a few satisfying gags, but when Gervais tempts fate with a few seconds of Handbags and Gladrags, it's impossible to not consider what this could have been with the involvement of Stephen Merchant.

Two and a half Oggmonsters out of five