Four Lions
Chris Morris finds too much sympathy in a messy but undeniably hilarious big screen debut.
Our sharpest satirist Chris Morris makes his big screen debut after years of terrorising the media, politics and the inane. Four Lions sees the Brass Eye creator lampooning suicide bombers in the north of England, but this jars with the apparent empathy shown for the terrotists.
Because you do end up liking these hapless terrorists, against your better judgement. Waj (Kayvan Novak) is a gormless simpleton who has a childlike, selfish outlook to life, but has all the best lines and a vulnerable air. Adeel Akhtar's Fessel is a hapless fool who again invokes the most laughter with his cunning method of buying chemicals. Hassan (Arsher Ali) is a likeable rapper who has no plausible reason for wanting to blow up innocent people, but is still involved. These three actors have the most incredible comic timing, and carry the film when Morris is unsteady in his vision.
They are led by Omar (Riz Ahmed), a loving husband to a Westernised young wife and father to an adorable little boy. His potential martyrdom is both known and encouraged by his happy and modern family, and you never really understand what drives him, or any of the team for that matter. The only suitably unpleasant character is Barry (Nigel Lindsay), with the abrasive white convert so full of misguided vitriol he wants the target to be a mosque rather than a Boots store. The entire film is the rubbish terror cell's attempt to organise themselves, and is outright, ludicrous farce one minute and tender and sympathetic the next. It's a sour note in a film that has a script that is absolute comedy genius - this year's In The Loop. Peep Show writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain flesh out the premise with a sharp eye, based on Morris's own, well-researched observations of jihadism. You'll never look at mini babybels or puffins the same way again.
Morris films with a handheld point of view, sometimes pushing the wobbly cam too far, and his physical humour is surprisingly unsophisticated - you can see a missile gag a mile off. It's a brave idea, and he is the only man who could attempt such a volatile subject matter with success, so why is there the niggling feeling he's not as harsh as he could be? Why is the ridiculousness of Muslims' faith in jihad only properly lampooned in the eyes of the borderline mentally-retarded characters, whereas it's shown as a noble cause in Omar's?
It's these doubts that ultimately make Four Lions an uncomfortable experience. It's not morally right, and it is hit-and-miss when it comes to its statement, but it is, always, sometimes uproariously, funny.
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