Film4 are showing a retrospective season of Danny Boyle movies and this was my first chance to catch A LIFE LESS ORDINARY . I had thought previously THE BEACH was the big Boyle flop but that dubious accolade goes to this movie which has a woefully unfunny script which proves that if a film is good it's down to the director but if it's bad it's down to the screenwriter . 28 DAYS LATER is a rather derivative , contrived screenplay lacking in internal logic and Boyle rises far above it to construct a stylish post apocalyptic drama/horror movie . But it's easy to crank up the thrills and chills in a horror movie . With a comedy it's far more difficult because if the jokes aren't funny then the whole movie fails due to this
It's not so much the jokes that are a failure , it's the whole screenplay by John Hodge . It's painfully underdeveloped and reminds you of other films that are slightly superior ones like the Charlie Sheen vehicle THE CHASE or infinitely superior ones like A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH . It's impossible to know why Hodge needed to introduce a fantasy element because the two angels could have easily have been mere mortals though perhaps that might have reminded the audience of the highly regarded Coen brothers . Ironically enough you're still reminded of the Coen brothers regardless and what good screenwriters they are . You're also reminded of those Osamond shows with their cheesy , predictable sketches contain painfully obvious punchlines . For example kidnapper and victim go in to phone box , kidnapper phones victim' s father and in a foul mouth rant describes what he's going to do with victim if he doesn't get the ransom , only to finish by saying " Oh sorry I must have dialled the wrong number " . It's not helped McGregor's natural inability to deliver a comic line and if anyone's laughing at this point they must have changed the channel
Boyle is on record as saying that the film in hindsight was " A bit too zany " and it's why it led to its relative box office failure but it's failures are down to reasons I've outlined above . Boyle did make his name with the darkly comical SHALLOW GRAVE and TRAINSPOTTING so he probably wanted to let his creative hair down a bit with a broader comedy that would appeal to an American audience . It shows what a great director he is that both A LIFE LESS ORDINARY and THE BEACH were flops and he was destined for obscurity till 28 DAYS LATER came along
It's not so much the jokes that are a failure , it's the whole screenplay by John Hodge . It's painfully underdeveloped and reminds you of other films that are slightly superior ones like the Charlie Sheen vehicle THE CHASE or infinitely superior ones like A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH . It's impossible to know why Hodge needed to introduce a fantasy element because the two angels could have easily have been mere mortals though perhaps that might have reminded the audience of the highly regarded Coen brothers . Ironically enough you're still reminded of the Coen brothers regardless and what good screenwriters they are . You're also reminded of those Osamond shows with their cheesy , predictable sketches contain painfully obvious punchlines . For example kidnapper and victim go in to phone box , kidnapper phones victim' s father and in a foul mouth rant describes what he's going to do with victim if he doesn't get the ransom , only to finish by saying " Oh sorry I must have dialled the wrong number " . It's not helped McGregor's natural inability to deliver a comic line and if anyone's laughing at this point they must have changed the channel
Boyle is on record as saying that the film in hindsight was " A bit too zany " and it's why it led to its relative box office failure but it's failures are down to reasons I've outlined above . Boyle did make his name with the darkly comical SHALLOW GRAVE and TRAINSPOTTING so he probably wanted to let his creative hair down a bit with a broader comedy that would appeal to an American audience . It shows what a great director he is that both A LIFE LESS ORDINARY and THE BEACH were flops and he was destined for obscurity till 28 DAYS LATER came along