The Inbetweeners Movie

2011

Director Ben Palmer

Take thirty minutes of television. Scrap the adverts. Add, say, sixty minutes. Shake. Stir. Cool before serving. And you should be rewarded with a quick and instant, salty and delicious cinematic transition.

Right?

Wrong.

Obviously it isn’t that simple. One has only to glance at the recent monstrosities that are the Sex and the City adaptations for evidence of this recipe not coming out of the oven the way it looked in the cookbook. Okay, so the capitalist, materialist wet dream juggernauts might have made a ton of cash, but is that the sign of a great, or even good, film?

No. No, it isn’t. It’s a sign that we are idiots. Big, fat, stupid idiots. Shame on us. Shame on us all.

But Sex and the City faced a similar dilemma to The Inbetweeners Movie, as did the makers of Kevin and Perry when they decided to Go Large with the Harry Enfield skit way back in 2000: adapting a comedy. When The X-Files brought their labyrinthine mystery to the big screen in 1998, it is arguable that their task was slightly less daunting. This is in no way a negative comment on Chris Carter’s masterful Science-Fiction series, but considering the longer running time of their episodes, extended, overarching story, and the very nature of a thriller-based narrative, the jump to cinema seemed only natural. For Sex and the City and Kevin & Perry it was about gags. Lots of gags. It sounds easy. “Well, you were able to write enough jokes to fill a half-hour story, so surely you just write more for a ninety minute run time?” But there’s a reason these shows are only thirty minutes. That’s the amount of time the writers can fill. And fill well. Thirty minutes of constant zingers is better than ninety minutes of occasional chuckles. Sex and the City couldn’t do it, and they knew they couldn’t do it, so they just fell back on their nice comfy cushion of capitalist whoring and watched the morons flock in. Very clever. Very sinister, but very clever. Like a Bond villain. Like a bunch of fashion-obsessed Bond villains. Kevin & Perry achieved moderate success. But, believe it or not, with The Inbetweeners Movie, director Ben Palmer and writers Damon Beesley and Iain Morris have nailed it.

We join our band of adolescent losers - Will, Simon, Jay and Neil - in the summer following their A-Levels. The gang want to let off some steam before going onto whatever new adventures await them. Lucky for them, Jay’s granddad has recently kicked the bucket, leaving his foulmouthed grandson with plenty of spare cash to waste. And what better place to do it then the chav capital of the world, Malia. Amidst the sun, sand, sex and, uh, shit, Simon hopes to get over the love of his life Carly, whilst the others just want to get a leg over. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s such a simple set up. Okay, it’s an unoriginal set up. Let’s take the characters away from the television world everyone knows and stick them in a foreign country. Kevin & Perry did it. Sex and the City did it. So why not Will & co.? To be quite honest, how hopes could have been high for this film when this bog standard ‘fish out of water’ tale was announced is anyone’s guess. But what the makers of The Inbetweeners have shown here is that if you’ve got enough gags, if you’ve got a cast of genuinely funny and likeable characters, your plot can be about as original as Avatar and nobody will care. Comedy plots are, by their very nature, minimal. They are nothing but a joke vehicle that provides just enough meaning to not appear completely ridiculous. And there are jokes aplenty in The Inbetweeners Movie. How on earth they managed to fill ninety-seven minutes without the pace slowing is beyond even the best of us. But they do. And this is almost entirely thanks to the characters.

What makes this quartet so much more endearing than that other Channel Four show featuring youngsters - you know, the one where they are all super cool, taking loads of drugs and having loads of sex - is that they represent the majority. Nothing anyone under the age of twenty-one says can be taken seriously. They are all full of so much self-bravado that they might as well don cock and chicken suits and be done with it. But they are not like the twats in Skins. Well, some of them might be, but they’re so fucking cool they probably don’t even realise other human beings exist. No, most youngsters are either pompous pillocks like Simon Bird’s nerdy Will, self-involved losers like Joe Thomas’ Simon, horny douchebags like James Buckley’s Jay, or, well, just idiots like Blake Harrison’s Neil. Adults don’t like them. Their peers don’t like them. And girls most certainly do not like them. Now these are the kind of characters I can get behind.

After two series, the young actors have grown into their roles perfectly, making it an absolute pleasure, rather than a chore, to spend an extra sixty-seven minutes in their company. Will and Simon are the real focal points of the narrative, just as they were in the television series, with Simon’s obsession with the horrible Carli (Emily Head) distracting him from the genuinely lovely Lucy (Tamla Kari), a girl who, strange as it might seem, actually likes him. Will, on the other hand, is busy pursuing Alison (Laura Haddock), a slightly supercilious babe who is so out of his league she might as well be overthrowing Gadhafi in Libya instead of partying in Crete.

Okay, so after all the time just spent talking about how realistic a portrayal of adolescent males The Inbetweeners presents, the last few sentences talk about these goofy, moronic losers somehow managing to bag the blatantly unattainable beauties. Doesn’t quite fit does it? One of the main complaints with the films of Judd Apatow is that to have these fat, unambitious slackers actually winning these goddesses is sending the wrong message. Fortunately, the central protagonists of The Inbetweeners - Will and Simon - are actually quite likeable, harmless buffoons. The plethora of jerks embodied by Seth Rogen and co. in the likes of Knocked Up and Funny People are so deeply warped, with disgusting, misogynistic smatterings, that it’s preferable that they get a bullet to the groin instead of the girl. The comedy of The Inbetweeners creates such a happy, positive atmosphere throughout the narrative that by the time the end finally comes anything other than the happiest of happy endings would feel like a darker version of Seven.

But don’t think for one second that due to the extremely strong script and performances of The Inbetweeners that it is nothing more than an extended television movie. Director Ben Palmer is having a hell of a time with the camera. From the opening, sweeping shots from space as we enter Jay’s bedroom, to the panoramic spectacle of the loathsome Malia, this film has earned its spot on the big screen.

How refreshing it is to take a quick glance at the UK’s box office figures for 2011 and see that the three monsters currently devouring the American competition are The King’s Speech, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two, and, you guessed it, The Inbetweeners Movie. Add to that trio Tomas Alfredson’s excellent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which is currently throwing its weight around in the multiplexes, and we have a pretty damn good financial year for Old Blighty. And whilst it’s no surprise to see us excelling at historical pieces or everyone’s favourite bespectacled wizard wand-slapping mere muggles into submission, it is a rare treat to see a British comedy prove such a monetary triumph. Thank god it deserves it too. It would be depressing indeed if it was Hollyoaks The Movie riding the wave, much like it must have been for sane Americans when Sex and the City was leaving stiletto marks across the backs of the competition.

The Inbetweeners Movie is a hilarious, faithful and truly charming adaptation of a recent high of British television. There’s a lot of competition from heavyweights such as Harry Potter and Tinker Tailor, but Will, Simon, Jay and Neil may ultimately prove to be the finest cinematic ensemble of the year. Well done, you wankers.

*** ¾ / *****