willc.me

I don’t really think I made it clear when I saw Bruno the other day just what I thought of it. I got a frantic text at 8 in the morning. “Bruno’s in the cinema, let’s go!” I couldn’t wait. I almost wet myself with excitement at the prospect of an afternoon of laughs with my mates. We walked into the cinema and a mere hour and a half later we came back, blinking into the sunlight, shell-shocked. But not in the way you may imagine. We were confused and disappointed, like we’d made it up to the top of Omaha Beach in Normandy only for a shell to go off next to us. Silent, we were cast adrift in the sea of comedy.

After Borat, the hype for Bruno was immense. It seemed that every magazine in the world was interviewing Sacha Baron Cohen’s new character. From the biggest broadsheets to the most lowly local hospital monthly newsletter. The publicity stunt with Eminem was hilarious. Although it soon came to light that it was staged. STAGED. This followed the trailer. The trailer that had a room laughing every time it came on. But that was the problem with the film.

Cohen had thought of some hilarious escapades for his latest vision to go through. The talk show was genius. As was the army and even the Velcro suit. But we saw all of that in the trailer. And that’s where the problem lay. We’d already laughed at the pivotal jokes in the film. So what was the point of paying to see the awkward staged bits in between? And there are plenty of them. Moments where you chuckle but at the back of your mind you know that it was set up. In fact after half way you begin to wonder how much was actually “real”.

And that went against the whole Borat and Ali G mission statement. They were ground breaking and amazing because the situations he put himself in was real. There were few actors and he charmed his way onto their level. He gave them enough rope to hang themselves and come out as anti Semitic or racist. Bruno puts people in situations that if most people were put in they’d get freaked out, leave and tell their friends that it was weird. It just wasn’t subtle enough. And after seeing 10 minutes of dildo gags it desensitises you to the endless tirade of them. And that is where the humour ends. Slapstick and jovial with no depth.

The question you have to ask yourself is where will Sacha Baron Cohen go next? He’s undoubtedly extremely intelligent, having gone to Cambridge, but you have to remember that both Ali G and Bruno were variations of comedy characters that he developed in the early 1990’s on small tv shows. Bruno is the first character that he has developed in recent years and it has to be said that it’s not nearly as good. Will he bring out a new character that has learned from the mistakes of Bruno or will he simply retire with his wife and millions? No doubt he will have something up his sleeve. We’re just going to have to watch and wait.