“Brian and Charles” (2022)
Ex Machina in the Welsh Hills
Ex Machina in the Welsh Hills
Brian and Charles is a surrealist, absurdist and quirky comedy written by it’s two Marquee names David Earl and Chris Hayward and directed by Jim Archer in his cinematic debut after a long career making short films and TV series and follows the trio creating a short film of the same name back in 2017. Ostensibly the two main actors inhabit the central roles with Chris Hayward manning the controls of the robot creation named “Charles” or more formally, “Charles Petrescu”, and David Earl brilliantly inhabits and reprises the role of “Brian Gittens” seen more commonly and famously within several of Ricky Gervais’ television series such as Extras, Derek and more recently, After Life.
David Earl reprises his titular character of Brian in the exact same vein as you may have seen within his collaborations with Ricky Gervais and here on the cinema screen he is just the same: socially awkward, a little shy, more than a little lonely and with the same outer appearance of being unkempt and shabbily dressed. The same cluttered house is present, but it’s now in the remote hills of Wales and a lonely Brian occupies himself as only he knows how, by making things and tinkering with the cast offs and rubbish left by others. “If you don’t try, you don’t succeed” exclaims Brian to the “fly on the wall” documentary team you never see but are always present to record the events of Brian’s life. After creations such as an “egg belt” (for carrying eggs, obviously!), a “trawler net for shoes” (to trawl for fish, presumably) and a “flying cuckoo clock” (a bicycle he intends to fly in the sky with attached cuckoo clock so the local villagers will always know what the time is, obviously!), Brian stumbles upon the head of a mannequin and sets to work on his ultimate creation, the building of a robot.
Clocking in at over 8 foot tall, with one eye and a washing machine for a body, Charles, and it’s always a more formal “Charles Petrescu”, seems to have acquired a machine learning capability and is quickly both loquacious, expressive and veers quickly from the charm and enthusiasm of a puppy dog or young child through to a teenager in very little screen time, but more importantly he becomes the “friend” that Brian doesn’t have and has always wanted and a companion to beat the loneliness blues. Brian has this, in spades, but he’s far too introspective and awkward to realise it until his newly created robot friend introduces him to the perfect human friend he’s known all along.
In a film utterly dominated by just two characters (one of which is a strange looking 8 foot talking robot!), there are two further characters worthy of note and the first one is a mouse called “Mr Williams” but of more substantive note is Louise Brealey’s excellent portrayal of “Hazel” that so fits the spirit as well as the awkwardness of the film as a whole. There are minor characters from the small Welsh village that Brian lives on the outskirts (and outside) of, but this leads us to the final outstanding character of the film, the country and countryside of Wales. The film is bathed in its surroundings, the wide expanse of the countryside itself, the rural setting, wildlife, farm life and relaxed way of life far away from the hustling and bustling life of a busy city.
Daniel Pemberton provides a perfect and often times melancholic gentle piano/organ musical soundtrack to a film I didn’t particularly care for but enjoyed within the spirit of its creation. Perhaps surprisingly (considering I watched the film too), I don’t particularly care for the character of Brian Gittens and that is arguably a highly twisted compliment to its creator David Earl. Furthermore, I don’t enjoy Brian’s outward character as the near knuckle humour often fails (deliberately so?) but so does mine, especially when I’m as withdrawn and socially unsure of myself as Brian often is, both here, and within the Ricky Gervais inspired television series’. Brian can often remind me of me, and that’s a little unnerving as well as another twisted compliment for his creator.
A melancholic man who’s afraid of his own shadow makes a 8 foot tall robot who can immediately speak and who quickly escalates from joyous child to wantaway 20 something? Faintly ridiculous I know, but that’s Brian and Charles. There’s a grain of truth to the Ex Machina comparison (singular melancholic creator builds a robot who immediately wants to be released from their creation cage to see the world) but my tongue is firmly in my cheek. There’s also the obvious comparison to Mary Shelley’s famous creation as well as the “Tin Man” from the Wizard of Oz, but there’s also another tongue in cheek comparison, this time to a 1970’s television show called “The Wombles” who scoured Wimbledon Common for the “things that the everyday folk leave behind”, and it immediately sprung to mind within minutes of the film’s opening credits. Again, tongue in cheek, but if you’re reading this and you haven’t seen or heard of “The Wombles” television show, take a peek at it’s theme tune and opening credits on Youtube sometime.
Guaranteed to put a smile on your face!
So will Brian and Charles, but not very often. The film misses the razor sharp offensive wit seen so often in David Earl’s many collaborations with Ricky Gervais and whilst this is a stand alone film with no comparisons needed or indeed helpful, the central theme of the ridiculous creation of the robot ran out of steam long before the film’s brilliantly sweet denouement.
Thanks for reading. Please see my archives for similar spoiler free treatments of countless films or if you prefer, please see the links below to my latest film review publications:
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