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Title: The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Simon Bird | ... | Will MacKenzie | |
| James Buckley | ... | Jay Cartwright | |
| Blake Harrison | ... | Neil Sutherland | |
| Joe Thomas | ... | Simon Cooper | |
| Emily Head | ... | Carli D'Amato | |
| Lydia Rose Bewley | ... | Jane | |
| Laura Haddock | ... | Alison | |
| Tamla Kari | ... | Lucy | |
| Jessica Knappett | ... | Lisa | |
| Theo Barklem-Biggs | ... | Richard | |
| Theo James | ... | James | |
| Anthony Head | ... | Will's Dad | |
| Victoria Willing | ... | Mrs. Cartwright | |
| Greg Davies | ... | Mr. Gilbert | |
| Henry Lloyd-Hughes | ... | Mark Donovan | |
Best friends Will McKenzie, Simon Cooper, Jay Cartwright and Neil Sutherland - who are not among the social outcasts, but also not cool enough to hang out with the cool kids who they aspire to be - have just graduated from their suburban London high school. Simon has finally been able to get Carli D'Amato, who he has been in love with since they were children, to be his girlfriend. Largely because they will be going away to different schools in the fall, Carli breaks up with him. To get Simon's singularly focused mind off Carli, his three best mates decide to take him on vacation for two weeks to get some sun, sand and girls before they move onto the next chapter of their lives in the fall. Neil makes the decision for them to go to Malia on the isle of Crete, a popular summer tourist destination for many a Brit. Jay, with inheritance money in hand, believes he can have the pick of any girl he wants. Neil has to decide what constitutes not cheating on his girlfriend, Nicole. Will wants... Written by Huggo
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Despite this British sitcom's surprisingly far-reaching fan base (not a single seat of the four hundred in my cinema was left unoccupied) I still find myself having to explain the show to family members, casual acquaintances and my favourite movie-loving cab driver on the way home.
So, a quick recap. The premise is simple: we follow four friends on the fringe of social status, somewhere between the 'normal kids' and the 'freaks', as they meander their way through high school and its teenage perils. There's the nerdy but level-headed narrator Will (Simon Bird), selfish relationship-dependent Simon (Joe Thomas), compulsive liar and big-noter Jay (James Buckley) and lovable dimwit Neil (Blake Harrison). The film picks up, naturally, during the last day of school. The boys decide to book a party holiday to Greece to help Simon get over his break-up with Carli, but things get hairy when Simon, who is at the furthest point from being over his ex, spots her on the same trip.
If I had to justify why I loved this film with one sentence, it would be this: at no point does it stray from the formula that made the show so refreshing. The humour is there, as are the scenes of incredible social awkwardness, but this consistency begins with proper characterisation. Every fan of the show has a personal favourite, and should be pleased to hear that their move to the big screen has not coerced creators Beesley and Morris into thinking they should customise the characters to suit a wider audience. By the end of the film, each of the four is in an inherently better position in their life than they were two hours ago, but how they all get there remains entrenched in typical Inbetweeners fashion.
What does this mean exactly? It means that the screenplay puts individual character development on the backburner for most of the film, instead preferring to fill every scene with a truckload of jokes ranging from slapstick, the spoken word and a merciless array of cringe-worthy moments; the kind that have become the niche of the series. In any other genre this could be considered a sour point, but comedies are granted exceptions on the basis that they exist primarily to entertain, not to provide a moral, or indeed, much deep thinking at all. Does each character learn something about their life through their experience in Greece? Sure. Should we expect them to let the rest of their life be guided by these same profound moments of clarity? I doubt it.
Anyone even slightly familiar with the series would be aware of its unrelentingly crude subject matter, which some might interpret as vulgar or even offensive. That's a personal call, and while it doesn't concern my comedic sensibilities in the slightest, I must warn the more politically correct among us that this is not a movie for you. Few social taboos are left undisturbed, and when you couple this with the notion that filmmakers can get away with a lot more on the big screen (a saying that rings especially true for The Inbetweeners), it is recommended that fence-sitters have a long think about how they feel about the series, lest they return home with the unexplained compulsion to take a boiling hot bath and scrub until a little skin comes off.
If I had to make a couple of minor criticisms, I would say that a handful of party clichés are overdone (see: front-on shots of friends walking in slow- motion through a club with big grins on their faces) and that some realism is lost when Simon appears too gullible to be believed (you'll know it when you see it). However, these moments are few and far between, and fail to detract from making this the funniest movie I've seen in a good few years.
*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review.*