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Review: The Drummond Will

Director: Alan Butterworth

Cast: Phillip James, Mark Ooserveen

Running time: 81 minutes

Synopsis: ‘The first feature shot on the Red One in black and white, The Drummond Will is a collision between old and new. A black comedy set in decaying rural England. It follows estranged brothers Marcus and Danny Drummond as they find themselves on a surprisingly dangerous undertaking to unravel the mystery surrounding their father’s unlikely wealth.’

‘And he [Elisha] went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. 2 Kings 2:23-24’.

Farcical, menacing and loaded with schtick; it’s little wonder THE DRUMMOND WILL director Alan Butterworth chose to open his movie with the bible passage above. The parochial comedy follows two brothers on an unwitting killing spree on the eve of their father’s funeral, and offers a handful of British movie homages on its journey. Reminiscent of the Sam Raimi-Bruce Campbell partnership, Butterworth and his army of chancers funded this movie privately via some very generous friends with ‘proper’ jobs. The low budget of THE DRUMMOND WILL casts an unfortunate veil over the project, however, Butterworth’s innovative storytelling avoids monetary-suffocation. A parody of the old Ealing comedies, THE DUMMOND WILL is having a literal stab at becoming the ‘funny’ WICKER MAN. However, the black and white colour grade does little to convey their ‘conflict between old and new’ branding. Sadly, the choice to go monochrome brings a creeping unprofessional feeling to the production. With its whip-fast pace, blood spatter killings and collection of one-liners, THE DRUMMOND WILL is more HOT FUZZ than THE LADYKILLERS.

The film shoulders heavily on its odd-couple double act, brothers Marcus and Danny, a duo so implicitly British that they can’t help but remind you of an early Fry and Laurie. Danny is the naval gazing son, bounding through life with the incessant charm of Justin Lee Collins. Although THE DRUMMOND WILL pegs Marcus, the straight backed city-worker as its poster boy, it is Phillip James (Danny) who gets laughs with his expressive face alone. One too many of core jokes are offered to Mark Oosterveen (as Marcus) who’s annoyingly emphatic delivery pangs of a school play performance: ‘It must be the vicar or the colonel’-Danny ‘This isn’t Cluedo Danny!’-Marcus.

Many of the supporting characters, however, are as one-dimensional as those Cluedo cards: the gay vicar, the local piss-artist, the creepy police man. As the leading men zip from one scene of senicide to the next, the village characters fade into the bloody background.

Despite a few misgivings and some serious mistreatment of the elderly, THE DRUMMOND WILL is a triumph of a first feature. Butterworth has a tangible love for British comedy, and isn’t afraid to be influenced by it. Each frame of THE DRUMMOND WILL has shades of MONTY PYTHON, FATHER TED and Edgar Wright. But it will be interesting to watch Butterworth cast away the story-nods and plough his originality into a second production.

THE DRUMMOND WILL is out on DVD & Blu Ray TODAY 08/08/11. See the trailer below:

Paul finished is BA in Film & Broadcast Productions during the summer and has somehow landed the position of Media & Marketing Manager in the London Korean Film Festival happening this November (plug). While at University Paul found his speciality lay in Script Development, scriptwriting and Editing. He has written, edited and director a small number of not very good short films but does not let that dissuade him from powering through. After the Koreans are through with him he looks to enter the paid world of Script Development. He likes incredibly bad horror films, East Asian movies, comics and lots of other stuff.

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