Bruno

Bruno

Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Clifford Bañagale, Bono, Elton John

Directed by: Larry Charles

Reviewed by: Conor Flynn







‘Bruno’ is the third character from satirist Sacha Baron Cohen to translate from television to the big screen. The film begins in Austria, the home country of Bruno, the star of Euro fashion show, “Funkyzeit.” Bruno’s dream is to become the biggest name in the fashion industry and he will do anything to achieve his goal. Soon this sees him “Schwartzlisted” from the Milan Fashion Week after a catwalk presentation goes badly wrong. Followed by his loyal personal assistant Lutz (Hammarsten), Bruno tries to find fame in America…

So is it funny? For the most part, it is, but it is humorous rather than hilarious. A number of problems hold the film back; to begin with Cohan is far less charismatic here than as Borat or Ali G. Bruno, as a character, is completely irredeemable. Both Ali G and Borat were deplorable characters; the former an illiterate misogynist, the latter, an anti-Semite misogynist, but both of these characters where shown to be very naïve and oblivious to their arrogance. Bruno, by comparison, remains self absorbed throughout and his vanity begins to grate eventually.

The gags generally tend to be successful, however, one particular moment involving an interview with a parent who is willing to have her infant dressed in a Nazi uniform starts off funny, but ends up worrying. Despite relying on shock tactics for laughs, by and large the jokes aren’t that shocking, mostly juvenile and smutty. By far the best moment of the film involves Bruno falling out of a window which just goes to show you that the oldest jokes are still the funniest. Another problem which the film suffers from is the sense of over familiarity; for example, a scene in which Bruno wrestles a naked Lutz feels like a combination of two scenes in ‘Borat’, namely the rodeo scene and the wrestling scene in the hotel. As if this wasn’t problematic enough, this latter joke is repeated ad-nauseum in a number of slightly differing ways though-out the film. Ask yourself how many times you can watch Bruno being tackled to the ground before it all becomes too repetitive.

There are some moments that feel staged, to the point that by the very end of the film, you cannot help feeling that Cohen is selling out to mainstream sensibilities with Bruno singing to the same hymn sheet as Bono. Ten years ago the satirist in Choen would have targeted Bono and brought him down a peg or two. The end result leaves you with a very shallow view of Cohen’s meteoric rise to success. This is a shame for someone who this reviewer once called ‘this generation’s rightful heir to Peter Sellers comedy crown…’

Bruno is a generally humorous film which offers more of the same Cohen shtick, but far less successfully. It’s much better than ‘Ali G Indahouse’, but not anywhere near as edgy, provocative and, more importantly, painfully funny as ‘Borat…’