Rent Black Pond (2011)

Funny and original - Black Pond review by TE

An enjoyable, intriguing oddity from Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe.

The film is held together by an excellent performance from Chris Langham, whose comic style is well suited to the mock documentary format.

There are many laugh-out-loud moments and one-liners, often tinged with darkness and an air of surreal humour. The word "quirky" often hides a multitude of sins, but here it is saved by a lightness of touch and a sense of genuine originality.

The one exception is Simon Amstell's affectedly silly turn as an oddball therapist. His scenes could all have been edited out to the film's benefit.

Kingsley has gone on to make cult tv comedies (Stath Lets Flats and Ghosts) and Sharpe has done similar with Flowers, though his performance in Giri / Haji has to be his best work to date.

Whilst it made headlines for casting Langham, this is not a film which I could get into or enjoy - Black Pond review by TB

This film made headlines when it was released for a reason which was nothing to do with the quality or script: the fact that it had cast Chris Langham in his first role after his imprisonment for downloading child pornography. There was massive outrage from most parts of the media, but I also remember vividly something else: once the dust of the controversy settled, this film attracted stellar reviews, especially for Langham’s performance. 

It is something that does not surprise me at all. Before his disgrace, which is referenced in the beginning of the film by his character in a satirical way, Langham was at the top of his game. He was fantastic in The Thick of It and had a 20+ year comedy career, alongside being a prolific writer. When looking at him purely for his talent, he is an incredible performer. But as much as this film received huge amounts of praise, it just didn’t work for me at all. 

The cast does their best and the locations are interesting, but it just never really caught fire. I do also have to be honest and say that despite some good performances, Simon Amstell’s performance was absolute nails-down a-chalkboard. So despite a good and interesting premise plus a clearly committed cast, this was a film I started off enjoying, then lost interest and finally turned off after an hour. This was doubly sad for me because it is a micro-budget film which took an enormous effort to get made and I had hoped that this chance would result in something great. 

I wanted to like it more, but sadly just couldn’t get into it.