I caught this on television a late Saturday night, deciding to stay up longer than originally planned due to the star power of this movie. Sadly, it was a decision I quickly regretted.
The film often feels like a stage play, which in itself may not necessarily be a bad thing, but when it is inter-cut with the sequences of James Cordon narrating whilst commuting from work, it feels cheap rather than as a stylistic choice. When on the matter of James Cordon's supposedly witty narration; narration itself is a tricky thing to pull off, but for the tone of this film, it could possibly have worked if not for the choice to actually show James Cordon telling the story while walking down the street or sitting on the bus. While James Cordon is undoubtedly quite charming, and including him as a character, rather then just a narrator, does have somewhat of a pay off, it still feels like they are trying to stretch out a rather thin script by doing so. It would also help if his material was actually funny, yet instead it all falls flat, making the sidesteps to his character narrating the story feel painfully unnecessary as they fail at both being funny and cute.
As for the actual story within Cordon's meta-narration, there is undeniably some charm and cuteness to be found, though not enough. Judi Dench and Dustin Hofmann both give strong performances, though their character are one-sided.
All this would have been fine if the jokes had hit better, which they sadly don't as I only one or two times found myself chuckling. It is a shame really as the movie is cute enough to sustain a simple, predictable story and one-sided characters, yet with the humour being way off, the film falls very flat and for the most part is a bore.
The film often feels like a stage play, which in itself may not necessarily be a bad thing, but when it is inter-cut with the sequences of James Cordon narrating whilst commuting from work, it feels cheap rather than as a stylistic choice. When on the matter of James Cordon's supposedly witty narration; narration itself is a tricky thing to pull off, but for the tone of this film, it could possibly have worked if not for the choice to actually show James Cordon telling the story while walking down the street or sitting on the bus. While James Cordon is undoubtedly quite charming, and including him as a character, rather then just a narrator, does have somewhat of a pay off, it still feels like they are trying to stretch out a rather thin script by doing so. It would also help if his material was actually funny, yet instead it all falls flat, making the sidesteps to his character narrating the story feel painfully unnecessary as they fail at both being funny and cute.
As for the actual story within Cordon's meta-narration, there is undeniably some charm and cuteness to be found, though not enough. Judi Dench and Dustin Hofmann both give strong performances, though their character are one-sided.
All this would have been fine if the jokes had hit better, which they sadly don't as I only one or two times found myself chuckling. It is a shame really as the movie is cute enough to sustain a simple, predictable story and one-sided characters, yet with the humour being way off, the film falls very flat and for the most part is a bore.