Cemetery Junction [Blu-ray] [2010][Region Free]

First off, I suspect that this can be the 'Truman Show' equivalent for Gervais and Merchant. What I mean is that I was severely disappointed when I watched the Truman Show all those years ago because I imagined that since Jim Carrey was playing the lead, it was going to be a hilarious comedy. I was sorely mistaken and therefore sorely disappointed.

The same mistake can be made with Cemetery Junction, particularly with people touting it as 'the best thing Gervais and Merchant have done since The Office'. It probably is the best thing they have done but that doesn't mean you are going to see David Brent on speed.

Cemetery Junction is a poignant and still appropriate movie set in the 1970's that deal with some very serious issues. To call it a 'coming of age' movie would be an injustice because American Pie also falls into that category.

The official Amazon review says that the three lead characters work for a local insurance company. This is incorrect. Only the lead character of Freddie (Christian Cooke) does. He is ambitious and does not want to end up like his dad (Gervais) working in a factory all his life.

Tom Hughes as Bruce Pearson does work in a factory, as his dad used to. He has a chip on his shoulder and likes getting into fights. Hates where he lives and hates his dad but is too scared to leave.

And Snork... "because I have a nose for...." is the butt of the jokes.

Each lead character is very clearly different and yet endearing in their own way. Ralph Fiennes plays the rags-to-riches Insurance man extremely well and Emily Watson uses the little bit of camera-time to great effect too.

My wife and I found this to be an excellent film. It moves at a very steady pace, it is well shot with a good 70's look to it. The characters are all well-defined and a myriad of issues are touched upon sufficiently to put across the point.

Ambition, social pressures, achievement, class, money, love, family, violence, alcohol, travel, friendships, WWII, respect, are all sufficiently touched upon in a film that is endearing and enjoyable. That's not easy to do but Gervais and Merchant (of all people) have done it.

This is one of the best films I have watched recently (and I watched about a dozen over Christmas!)I highly recommend it.

Hope that helps.

Yes, it is predictable, yes there are 70s cliches but much of it was spot on. If you were a child of the 70s you cannot help but raise a wry smile or 3 at this. There were some genuinely funny bits and , while Ricky Gervais can sometimes be smug an annoying, he's perfect in this (and now I read the script was tailored for US audiences, I can see why some of it was like it was). I would have liked to see more scenes with him and his family, especially the (somewhat sterotypical) bigoted gran!

Cemetery Junction is Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's attempt to do a British coming of age comedy just like so many of the American counterparts, that is to create a feel-good film that deals with the trials and tribulations of growing up in a sensitive, honest and entertaining manner.
However, while they manage to mix comedy and drama as effortlessly as they did on Extras, the pair are rather less successful in terms of creating something unique as the film is constantly spouting cliché after cliché, Which is a shame as the sense of time and place is impeccable and the performances from their young and largely unknown cast is spot on.
Set in Reading in the 1970's, the story is of a town that missed the swinging '60s, and of a group of three friends desperate to escape their suburban surroundings and working class roots. Freddie is the pivot of the three, a young, handsome, confident lad who swaps jeans for suits and glam rock for classical music in an effort to better himself and turn his blue collar white. Bruce is his charismatic friend whose only wish is to escape a troubled home life, but whose violent self-destructive streak holds him back at every turn. And Snork is their well-meaning but slightly simple partner in crime, whose efforts to get laid are scuppered by his lack of conversational judgement and tendency to talk in anec-don'ts.
The story would have been reasonable enough, were it not so painfully predictable. Every twist and turn is sign-posted so far in advance that there isn't a surprise to be had throughout. This tale has been told so many times that it demands a spark of invention or originality to spice things up, but Cemetery Junction sticks to story conventions, with nothing new or imaginative to say. The cast, however, are perfect, rescuing the film from its mundane predictability, and charming their way through proceedings and making their characters very believable. It very much looked like Ralph Fiennes had great fun as the pig-headed misogynist, delivering a master-class in insensitivity and turning the sleaze dial up to 11. Gervais is also as good as ever as Freddie's Dad, his casual racism, sexism and pre-occupation with class underlining all that was wrong with society at the time. Indeed his banter with Freddie's Grandma creates some of the film's funniest moments.
Unfortunately the story does have a slight feeling of déjà vu as there are love triangles similar to that played out in The Office as well as some redemption themes similar to what Ricky Gervais's character experienced in both the end of The Office and Extras.
Repetition and slightly flawed story aside, Gervais and Merchant really come into their own when wearing their director's hats, in Cemetery Junction, the 1970s are lovingly re-created, the pair have also given the film a sunny, glossy Hollywood sheen, creating a beautifully romanticised vision of 1970s Reading. The result is a film that feels more American but when combined with a belting home-grown soundtrack featuring the likes of Elton John and Mott the Hoople, the result is distinctly British.
Taken on its own terms, it's a minor miss-fire - a film with good intentions that never quite hits the marks. However, the fact that Cemetery Junction has been crafted by two of the UK's sharpest comedy minds makes it a slight disappointment and suggests that their unique brand of humour is perhaps best suited to the half-hour format on the small screen.