Thursday, 6 May 2010

Heaven Can Wait

Four Lions, the suicide bomb satire from Chris Morris and Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong is extremely funny but suffers from a credibility gap as everyone in it is so ridiculously thick. You can't see how people that stupid would be able to get their own clothes on in the mornings, let alone master Key Stage Two chemistry.

According to Morris, this low level of, shall we say, attainment was found frequently during his exhaustive research. Watching it, one can't help being reminded of screenwriting guru Robert McKee's warning, that 'verisimilitude does not equal dramatic truth'. In other words, the reality is too bonkers to believe so sometimes has to be toned down.

However one leaves the cinema vastly reassured, as it means that most of the people who are currently trying to kill us may indeed achieve their aim of blowing themselves up - but not of taking the rest of us with them.