Bruno - Review
Is Sacha Barron Cohen’s Bruno A Box Office Success?
Sacha Baron Cohen’s third comedy character to make it to the big screen, Bruno, was released last week to great expectation. Bruno is the Austrian fashion sensation who will be, in his own words - “The biggest Austrian celebrity since Hitler”. The only thing is he has to figure out how to do it first.
The tremendous success of both Ali G and Borat had heaped plenty of pressure on Baron Cohen and all eyes were on the English comic last week to see if he could generate more box office success with another weird and wonderful incarnation.
Early Success at the Box Office for Comedy Bruno
Initially this proved so, as Bruno scooped the top spot at both the US and UK box office’s in its opening weekend, taking $30.6m in total (boxofficemojo.com). Sacha Baron Cohen’s previous assault on Hollywood in the form of Borat was a slightly slower burner in its opening, playing to fewer cinemas but expanding quickly to gross $26.5 million at close in its first weekend in the US (boxofficemojo.com). In some respects Baron Cohen was testing the water in America, well known in the UK after Ali G had won him many fans, he was a relative unknown quantity in the US. It’s evident that positive word of mouth surrounding Borat helped the film grow significantly, the film went on from just 837 screens to play to 2,611 in total at the end of its first weekend.
However, with an audience now familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen and subsequently a lack of unsuspecting celebrities and members of the public to prey upon, Bruno was always going to have to go to great lengths outdo his Kazakhstani counterpart.
If longevity at the box office is anything to go by then Bruno has ultimately failed. Jeremy Kay noted in his July 20, 2009 Guardian on-line article ‘US Box Office Spellbound by Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ that Bruno has dropped off a significant 73% in its second weekend at the US box office, adding only $8.4m to its running total of $49.6m . At this same stage Borat had accumulated $67.1m.
Haven’t We Seen This Before?
So what does this mean for Sacha Baron Cohen? In terms of having to go to even further extremes than Borat to shock an American audience, he certainly succeeded. But at the same time this is Bruno’s downfall. Far too much of the movie is staged, something that was less apparent with Borat. This does detract from Bruno’s comedy appeal, especially during scenes that would be so hilariously cringe-worthy if they weren’t so badly acted. An example of such is when we see Bruno enlist in the US Marines in a bid to toughen up his image and turn heterosexual (with disastrous consequences). Bruno’s encounters with his drill sergeants are so clearly contrived that it borders on the pathetic. Marines don’t make great comedy performers.
Bruno also employs a narrative strangely similar to Borat. Bruno moves to Hollywood to re-establish his celebrity status after suffering the ridicule of being sacked from his Austrian fashion show. On arriving, he attempts to exploit every possible means to catapult himself into the public eye, including creating a sex video with the unsuspecting politician Ron Paul (one of the movie’s few genuine mickey-takes) and adopting an Afican baby - Madonna-style. Accompanied on his trip to the US by personal assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten) Bruno offends his way across America, culminating in a performance at a cage fighting championship in Texas where he and Lutz finally realise their true feelings for one another.
Does Bruno Go Too Far
It’s not that Bruno isn’t funny, it’s very satirical in places, mocking the notion of celebrity and how little (or much in Bruno’s case) you actually have to do to become famous. It’s just that you get the impression that it relies too heavily on being shocking and risqué. It seems that this is the primary way to obtain laughs in Hollywood these days. There seems to be an endless stream of crass comedies aimed at shocking us into laughter rather than adopting that old comedy adage - wit?... Oh and a good script. Comedy is now just an endless one-upmanship of crudeness, each new comedy trying to push the boundaries of acceptability even further.
This works for a while but quickly becomes tiresome, something that may explain why Bruno fell away so significantly after its opening weekend. Much of Bruno is just re-hashed comedy routines from Sacha Baron Cohen’s previous characters, and Bruno if anything was the one who had the least comedy mileage.
This cow has been milked dry Sacha, time to re-think your approach.
Verdict: 3/5
Rating: 18
Running time: 81 Minutes
Bruno Film Review
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