TRISTRAM DANDY

REVIEWED - A COCK AND BULL STORY SO PROLIFIC that he makes even Woody Allen or François Ozon seem like a slouch, Michael Winterbottom is a remarkably versatile director whose past work has not been noted for levity.

All the more welcome a surprise, then, that A Cock and Bull Story, his 13th feature film in 10 years, is also one of the funniest movies in quite some time.

A Cock and Bull Story operates from the premise that Laurence Sterne's classic 18th century novel, Tristram Shandy, is unfilmable and then proves this as it charts all the difficulties faced by a film crew in bringing the book to the screen.

As it happens, the source material proves to be among the least of their problems, given that they have to cope with the egomania and absurd demands of their vain leading actor (played with deadpan aplomb by Steve Coogan), along with the cynicism and compromises of producers, the boring, loud-mouthed views of a history anorak, and a hopelessly inadequate budget - in an inept battle scene an actor leads "literally tens of men".

Coogan's actor character has his own problems, unsuccessfully trying to put his Alan Partridge past behind him. An admirably game Gillian Anderson plays herself in a hilarious casting scene and Kieran O'Brien, fully dressed after Winterbottom's 9 Songs and fresh from that movie's media firestorm, clearly enjoys playing a prying journalist.

Although scrappy in parts, and clearly not very bothered by that, A Cock and Bull Story briskly coasts along on a wicked, self-referential sense of fun, a profusion of sharp gags about the film industry, and without a trace of political correctness. It's played with gusto by a fine ensemble cast in which Rob Brydon steals scene after scene - along with performing the definitive impersonation of Al Pacino.