A Film With Me In It: DVD Review

A Film With Me In It: DVD Review

A Film With Me In It
Cast: Dylan Moran, Mark Doherty, Keith Allen, David O Doherty
Director: Ian Fitzgibbon
Mark (Mark Doherty) isn't doing too well.
An out of work actor who's trying to write a film with his mate Pierce (Dylan Moran), Mark just can't seem to get any luck whatsoever.
His girlfriend is about to walk out on him because of the ramshackle accommodation they live in; his landlord wants he - and his wheelchair bound brother (David O Doherty) evicted -so all in all, Mark is really struggling to get by.
Then one fateful day, his life is completely changed when everyone around him (except Pierce) is killed in a series of unfortunate, unplanned mishaps in his flat.
As Mark struggles to cope trapped in the flat with a plethora of dead bodies, Pierce convinces him there is a way out of it - which doesn't involve either of them going to the police and confessing what happened&..
A Film With Me In It tries for pitch black humour - and somehow ends up being just a little bit dull - and far too contrived to feel much sympathy for Mark.
Moran's Pierce isn't intended to be a nice character - and his matter of fact bullying of Mark who just wants to go to the police doesn't make you feel any kind of sympathy for Pierce and just makes you wish Mark would stand upto him.
The problem with this film is that the contrived incidents - while they're hinted at in the beginning of the film - seem far too wacky and coincidental to be believable - although I'm guessing those who were involved would say that's actually the point.
At times, it throws up echoes of Shallow Grave but there's no real urgency to the pair when faced with a growing body count - and consequently you don't end up willing them to succeed in their quest to avoid jail.
While it ends up being pitch black dark farce towards the end, A Film With Me In It is a curio - it feels overlong despite its brief running time and is a disappointment given the comic caliber of those involved.

In the end it's a film which has missed potential and a melodrama which fails to have any real heart in it - if you had felt more for the characters and their plight, chances are you'd have been a little more sucked into their world instead of feeling like those who'd died got off lightly.

Rating 3/10