You would think that when you hear Netflix Original and Ricky Gervais in the same sentence you are in for a good laugh, unfortunately this is not the case with SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS. Gervais plays hobbling technician Ian Finch who ends up on an assignment with arrogant and narcissistic journalist Frank Bonneville (Eric Bana).
Their job is to cover a civil war in Ecuador but when Finch loses their passports they have to come up with a way to fake radio news reports or lose their jobs. The film starts out with a reasonably interesting premise, and is based on a French film with a similar name, and quickly becomes extraordinarily lacklustre and flat out mundane movie.
I must have wryly chuckled twice throughout the entirety of the film. This really does not bode well for Gervais considering he wrote and directed it with total creative control. Even with the understanding it is a low budget film I found almost no amusement or joy in SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS. Ricky Gervais is such a talented comedian and writer but has been going through a bit of a slump as of late. His glory days of THE OFFICE and EXTRAS seem to be slowly fading behind him. His Netflix show DEREK attests to this as even though it is poignant at times it lacks the wit of his previous work.
The film feels like it is just dragging itself along, and maybe this could be the consequence of Gervais putting too much on his plate. In the end you don’t truly care about the fate of any of the characters and this really damaged my engagement with it. Kelly Macdonald as Claire Maddox is her usual perturbed self with a constantly anxious scrunched up face, she seems to have a serial case of typecasting, but if it aint broke don’t fix it I guess.
The chemistry between Bana and Gervais is basically non-existent on screen and by the end it almost feels like they are just trudging along to get this film wrapped up. The pacing meanders along and because there is no real original charm or comedic flare between the leads it all goes bust. Unfortunately there is no real redeeming quality about SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS.
Even if you are a fan of Gervais I would suggest you give this a miss, a thoroughly disappointing film. At least there is the DAVID BRENT: LIFE ON THE ROAD film to look forward to.Â
VerdictÂ
