Big Nothing DVD > Reviews > Big Nothing

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Satisfactory
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Simon Pegg
Disadvantages:	limited re - watch value

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Jean-Baptiste Andrea's second feature, Big Nothing, is a stylish, thriller with comedic undertones that takes us from the beginning right the way through to the end of a so called foolproof plan than we, the audience, just expect to go wrong at every available opportunity. The story is about a trio of unlikely characters whom attempt to extort money from a priest who has an unhealthy liking of illegal porn sites and snuff films. The trio in question are Gus Dickinson (Simon Pegg), Charlie Wood (David Schwimmer) and Josie McBroom (Alice Eve).

The main focus of the film is Charlie. Charlie is an out of work teacher and wannabe author with a disorder which affects his memory which means that he spouts off random facts and figures in an effort to preserve his memory for as long as possible. Charlie thinks that he needs to find work in order to support this wife Penelope (Natascha McElhone) and their three year old daughter Emily, although Penelope doesn't think that he needs to get a job and that he has all he needs at home. Charlie ignores her and eventually gets a job at a local IT Call Centre where he meets Gus.

Gus on the other hand is a likeable if cocky employee at the call centre, and he is the one with the plan to get rich from extorting the priest. When Charlie gets fired on his first day at work, Gus takes pity on him and wants to bring him in on the scheme. They meet at a local bar and discuss the plan where they are overheard by Josie, an ex miss teen Oregon, who muscles in on their plan, for a cut of the money. Naturally the plan that the trio agree on starts badly and goes downhill fast, with the body count increasing and the selection of available alibi's growing ever smaller, the three of them attempt to pull things back in favour for themselves so they can keep the money, again this starts to go pear shaped for them as more and more people become involved.

I admit I was drawn to this movie for one reason and one reason only. Simon Pegg. Having seen Shaun of the Dead, and snippets of spaced I [metaphorically speaking of course] cannot get enough of the guy. I find his brand of humour spot on both in terms of the funnies that he comes out with as well as with the facial expressions that throws in for good measure. It was not lost on me however that with the movies that I had seen with Pegg in them he had first hand involvement in the creative side of the movie, whereas in Big Nothing he did not have that level of influence which may of course affect the quality of the performance. David Schwimmer on the other hand I can generally take or leave. For me has never really shaken off his role as Ross in Friends, even in Band of Brothers I expected him to come out with a funny line or two, Alice Eve who plays Gus' ex Josie I've never seen or noticed before and so was therefore an unknown quantity to me.

As I mentioned earlier the film itself is more of a thriller with comedic elements rather than a comedy thriller and it certainly does not suffer because of this. In fact I would say that I would not have enjoyed the film so much had it been more of a comedy, the dark tone both in the cinematography and the storyline suited it much better that way than an outright comedy would have.

The storyline itself I thought was really clever, the twists and turns in the plot leaving you feeling dizzy but not overwhelmed as they come and go at almost breakneck pace not only with the plan falling to pieces but also when certain people are not whom they seem to be. I am sure there will be some plot holes in there somewhere but I didn't notice them on the first viewing. Schwimmer gave a performance which although did remind me of Ross (Friends) on occasion, did give a good account of himself, I think the issue with Schwimmer is that he always has the same tone of voice which means that no matter what he appears in we always think back to Friends. Pegg I thought was pure class, donning an American accent for his role, which was convincing, well it was to me, I am sure Americans could pick fault in the accent all day long and that is fair enough, but for a brit it was good enough for me to believe it.

Performance wise I think that the role he (Pegg) played, which although had comedy in it was more of a rogue character. I thought this suited him down to the ground and he had great fun with it. Alice Eve gave a book account of herself too. A British actress who is the daughter of Trevor Eve she plays a sometimes scatty, but intelligent role. She more or less takes over "the plan" from the two less able male characters, as I said earlier I was not familiar with her as an actress and it was good to see her take to the role.

Big Nothing had the honour of being the first film that I have reviewed on my new TV (a 32" Sony Bravia LCD) and my, what a gorgeous picture it had. The blacks were very deep which is a good thing is as the majority of the movie is shot at night and everything else was crisp and clean. I liked the creative use of the camera and especially of the shadows within the film. Just check out the framing and shadow use when Charlie is praying to am image of Christ. There are a few parts of the film that crop up in a 24 style split screen, I am not so sure that they worked on this film, they seemed to interrupt (although did not spoil) the flow of the film.

The 5.1 Dolby Digital Soundtrack was nice and yet understated, several times decent effects were put through the rears although it was predominantly centre and front based. The base was beautiful, adding superb effects when the LFE channel was needed. There are a few music tracks that crop up in the film and again they used the LFE to good effect creating a decent, above average soundtrack both for score and sound effects.

**Overall:**

I found Big Nothing an average but enjoyable film with a good cast that all play their roles very well. There is just the right amount of humour is thrown into the mix and the clever twists and turns of the film keep you guessing right up to the end. I am not too sure of the re-watch value of the film; so maybe catch it on cable or a rental rather than a purchase, so recommendation is no, as in, no to purchase.

**Note**
I wrote this review for a site that I moderate on, I wanted to cross post here for others to read, these are all my own words and has not been copied from anyone else. It has been slightly re-written and is also posted up on dooyoo under stevepeto.