Review of Most Unromantic Man in the World, The

Introduction

Gratian Dimech and James Heath`s mockumentary comedy has all the hallmarks of truly independent movie-making. Officially selected for the Toronto Film Festival, it is a twisted, modern romantic comedy in the fly-on-the-wall documentary style of The Office. Unfortunately, it is also a five-minute sketch dragged out to 81 minutes.

The box illustration of the leading man in his stained underkecks sets the level of the movie. Anti-hero David Lumby (David Lumby) is as ugly on the inside as on the outside. He is married to the not just long-suffering, infinitely suffering Doreen (Yvonne Tansley) who must have done something extraordinarily evil in a previous life to end up married to such an uberslob.

Slovenly, addicted to porn and staggeringly misogynistic, Lumby is Wayne Slob with attitude. The kindest thing you could do for his wife is put a bullet between his eyes (although you`d probably still miss his brain). However, like so many women in bad relationships, she wants to find the man she fell in love with.

She isn`t going to get the romantic, Hollywood ending she wants.

Video

Shot on digital video, the enterprise is presented in non-anamorphic 1.77:1 which frankly just looks cheap. The camera does all the whip-pan, too-close-for-comfort shots that demonstrates how few camera operators care for the cinematic art of the past.

Audio

Very bog standard Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.

Features

The menu comes with a hugely irritating French-style accordion accompaniment. There is a trailer for the movie, a handful of deleted scenes and a set of audition tapes for cast members. There are no subtitles.

Conclusion

Eeyuck. I really loathe the modern love affair with gross-out comedy. I just don`t find funny anything that makes me feel queasy, embarrassed or creeped-out and like much of Little Britain - one of my own pet hates - this movie pushes all the wrong buttons. I really do not need to see the leading man fiddling with himself in his underwear.

Commentators have called this a romantic comedy and the makers compare it with Bridget Jones. Believe me, I know romantic comedies and this isn`t one.