Confetti
Director: Debbie Isitt
With: Jessica Stevenson, Martin Freeman
Runtime: 119 min
The CVs of the actors in Confetti read like a list of British cringe comedy: to name but a few, there is talent from Green Wing, Spaced, The Office, Peep Show and My Family and Other Animals on show. Expectations for such an ensemble are deservedly high, and Confetti makes excellent use of its resources, but it is also tinged with a certain disappointment.
The pitch: three couples battle it out to win a new house by providing the most original wedding to a panel of judges from ‘Confetti’ wedding magazine. On offer is a naturist wedding (Robert Webb and Olivia Colman), a tennis themed wedding (Stephen Mangan and Meredith MacNeill) and a musical wedding (Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson). The result is a light-hearted, ridiculous and cringing silliness, which is just what to expect from such a bunch. If there’s one thing that this lot are good at it’s that genuine fly-on-the-wall documentary feeling, and this is the film’s greatest strength. Martin Freeman’s reactions, true to The Office, are brilliant (particularly in relation to his mother- and sister-in-laws to be), and Mangan shines with his characteristic petulantly blunt outbursts.
Stealing the show, though, are the two wedding planners (Jason Watkins and Vincent Franklin): stereotypically, two camp, wailing eccentrics who, in contrast to the normal irritation caused by such roles, provide the best laughs. Improvised around a rough script, the film is all the more impressive for its comic excellence, but one unfortunate result is flabby dialogue that drags on a number of occasions and ultimately leaves us clinging onto the actors’ reactions for the humour. This is not a quotable film.
Jimmy Carr, furthermore, is far too soft-spoken to make a ruthless magazine editor, and his humour regularly falls flat because the character is an arrogant and irritating softie. The final wedding “shows” also drag, and smack of a low budget. They leave us questioning the gaping plot holes but, worst of all, neglect the potential of Mark Heap (surely everyone’s favourite consultant radiologist in Green Wing), who is a boring and unanimated registrar.
For light comic relief, Confetti ticks all the boxes. It has all the elements we love and hate about the comedies that made its cast famous. Don’t go expecting hilarity, though. This film has enough to keep you chuckling, but just doesn’t have the magic of the likes of Green Wing and The Office. It seems that it takes more than a few cringe actors to make these sitcoms what they are.
Reviewed by
Dan Kipling
