| Swede Caroline (2022) | |
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Rating: N/A/10 (17 votes) Director: Finn Bruce, Brook Driver Writer: Brook Driver Stars: Jo Hartley, Aisling Bea, Ray Fearon Runtime: 98 min Rated: N/A Genre: Comedy Released: 31 Oct 2022 |
| Plot: Set to poke a comedic carrot at the world of competitive vegetable growers. | |
This first time feature from co-directors Brook Driver and Finn Bruce, written by Driver, is a British mockumentary set in the competitive world of vegetable growing competitions, in which suspicious of cheating and foul play taking place leads to an escalation of events, leading to political corruption, kidnapping, and attempted murder. If that all sounds a little crazy, well it is, and joyously so.
Caroline, played by the ever excellent Jo Hartley, finds herself disqualified from a marrow growing competition due to a claimed ‘imperfection’ in the marrow. Believing that the judging panel were paid off, when her next batch of marrows are stolen, she hires a pair of ‘swinging detectives’ (detectives who host swinging parties), played by Aisling Bea and Ray Fearnon, to investigate, whilst her close friends Paul (Richard Lumsden) a conspiracy nut who fears every knock on the door will be the TV license people, and Willy (Celyn Jones) a neighbour who caught the theft on camera, help Caroline uncover the truth of the events. As the film plays out, events spiral out of control in hilariously unpredictable ways.
The false documentary style works well here, and there is a clear inspiration from the marvellous works of Christopher Guest with films such as Best In Show. Similar to those films that came before, in here we have a wide array of eccentric characters that surround the lead, who provide the sometimes bizarre, sometimes subtle humour whilst Hartley as Caroline gets to mostly play things straight, and even adds in touches of emotional drama at times with a stellar performance that makes it impossible to not care for Caroline’s struggle. Right from the start, as the documentary filmmaker introduces the set-up, the comedy nerve is given a nudge with a cutaway to a couple of her friends who will help on the film, who we are then assured won’t be appearing in the rest of it, and that set me chuckling right off the bat, and I barely stopped throughout.
The sharp humour of the screenplay is aided by the cast delivering it (and a few moments of inspired improvisation land equally as well), making for one of those films that you occasionally find yourself giggling so much that you miss the next few lines, ensuring that there will be a repeat viewing sometime soon. Lumsden as Paul in particular steals some of the best laughs, with his obsession with conspiracies regularly being proven wrong in the most deftly hilarious manner. Some quick cutaways to random background characters add to the mix to make certain that every opportunity for a laugh is taken.
Running at just over an hour and a half, it feels tight, fun, and never drags out. By the end of the film I wasn’t entirely sure what the heck had transpired, but I did know that I enjoyed every moment of it playing. Even the opening title sequence, which was an overproduced bombastic barrage of music and visuals in an almost Brass Eye manner, was inspired brilliance of comedy. The end result is a much needed breath of comedy fresh-air from the British market, and indeed one of the funniest films I’ve seen overall in a few years.
Well and truly a recommended good time, especially when seen with an audience.
