‘David Brent: Life On The Road’ review: “Side-splitting entertainment”

Life On The Road review: Following the original two seasons and the Christmas specials, has Ricky Gervais delivered comedy gold or a tone-deaf turkey?

Our Life On The Road review was conducted from a theatrical screening in the UK in August 2016.

Ricky Gervais brings perhaps his most beloved, and most perfectly created screen character David Brent back to the screen 13 years after The Office pertinently shut up shop in 2003 after just two seasons (and a Christmas special). Spin-offs/ different incarnations in multiple countries followed, while Gervais happily went off to do his own thing and find further success with the likes of Extras, Life’s Too Short and the more recent, heart-warming Derek. The Reading-born actor found international acclaim after successfully hosting the Golden Globes four times (gloriously pissing off Hollywood in the process) and appearing in a bunch of high profile movies, including The Invention of Lying, Ghost Town and this year’s Special Correspondents. It’s safe to say that returning to Brent was a brave move, so has he pulled it off?

In a word, yes – but more on that after we’ve gone over the plot.

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About as many years as when we last saw him have passed and Brent hasn’t fallen too far from the corporate tree. We pick up with him ‘on the road’ as a travelling rep, navigating the highways from Slough to Gloucester (we’re guessing his region is the M4 corridor) seemingly selling Tampax to whoever shows the smallest of interest in buying. Of course, Brent has bigger and grander plans and has booked up three weeks off work (just over two weeks unpaid) to go on tour with his newly formed band Forgone Conclusion (Mark 2). Made up of a group of session musicians, protégé Dom Johnson (Doc Brown), and himself, Brent has dipped into his pension to realise his dreams and take to the road to play as many venues as possible in the hope of getting signed – and of course, a documentary camera crew has come along for the ride to capture every hilarious, cringe-worthy moment.

It’s safe to say we’re in familiar territory pretty much from the off with Life On The Road as Gervais wastes no time in throwing as many gags our way as he possibly can. I think that I laughed more in the film’s opening five minutes than I have during most of any other comedy film this year, and although I liked The Office, I wasn’t its biggest fan. The audience we were with also largely agreed, including a couple of die hards sat next to me. Brent is portrayed as a slightly older (naturally), though indeed no way wiser version of himself and very often we see ourselves sympathising with the character. The film is loaded with underlying messages; the obvious non-relenting pursuit of one’s dreams, to achieve life goals, to never never give up hope, and of course the want to be accepted.

Unlike The Office where there were many characters to fall for and despise, Life On The Road is carried purely by Brent, which could have been massively problematic, but Gervais manages to litter his film with enough going on that it doesn’t drag and most importantly, he keeps those laughs coming pretty much all of the way through with hardly ever let up, although you can’t help but feel that the movie does run of of steam towards the end.

There’s some great acting support in the magnificent Jo Hartley, Doc Brown and many more, and with Gervais also unafraid to get known home-grown comedic talent involved to fill the more minor roles, including Kevin Bishop who pops up as an overenthusiastic small-town radio presenter. What Gervais doesn’t do is overload the film with cameos, bar one three-second long appearance by a hugely popular celebrity towards the end – another glorious, laugh-out-load moment.

The many musical numbers in the film do get a bit repetitive, but all are still entertaining, and I can see that Brent may grate with some viewers. I’m not sure how easy this will translate around the world, but The Office is a huge franchise, whether it be the much-loved and near perfect original, to the much more drawn out American version. Most other territories will see this debut on Netflix, much like his last effort Special Correspondents, and this is a perfect platform for this kind of film and should get much deserved attention.

David Brent: Life On The Road manages to avoid denting The Office‘s legacy, and is a much better film than any of his previous features, and indeed up there with the best of Gervais’ stuff post Extras.

Hugely enjoyable, massively entertaining and above all, very bloody funny. What more do you want?

David Brent: Life On The Road review by Paul Heath, August 2016.

David Brent: Life On The Road is released in the UK & Ireland on Friday 19th August, 2016. The film be released on the Netflix platform later in 2016.