Writer/director Gavin Claxton shot The All Together in 18 days with a cast and crew of just 28. But while he deserves credit for managing to attract the likes of Martin Freeman and Danny Dyer to the project, and for having the guts to go it alone, the goodwill ends there. This is a comedy so short on laughs that sitting through it is excruciating.
Freeman plays frustrated TV producer Chris, whose decision to leave his unreliable flatmate Bob (Velibor Topic) in charge of selling the property backfires spectacularly. Asked simply to let the estate agents come and go, Bob inadvertently lets in American gangster Mr Gaspardi (Corey Johnson) and his trigger-happy English host Dennis (Dyer), and winds up in the middle of a hostage situation that steadily goes from bad to worse. The farce that ensues relies on vomit, excrement, inter-species sex, violence and foul language for laughs, and completely makes a mockery of the promising, cine-literate voiceover that sets things in motion.
Most of the performances are frankly amateurish, with the exception of Freeman, who somehow manages to remain endearing, particularly during the brief scenes he shares with real-life girlfriend Amanda Abbington. Dyer, especially, is all at sea in a role that reduces him to yet another stereotypical villain, thereby completing a hat-trick of turkeys that began with Outlaw earlier this year and was followed by Straightheads.
"CONTRIVED AND INCONSISTENT"
Claxton's screenplay feels so contrived and inconsistent that you wonder what appealed to the game cast in the first place. Far from offering anything fresh or innovative, The All Together leaves behind it the wretched stench of yet another disappointing farce for the British film industry...
The All Together is released in UK cinemas on Friday 11th May 2007.