Cemetery Junction

Optimistic nihilism

CEMETERY JUNCTION
Directors: Gervais & Merchant
Cert. 15

Ricky Gervais’s and Stephen Merchant’s first feature film together as writers/directors cements them as a creative force with longevity.

The script follows childhood friends Freddie, Bruce and ‘Snork’ as they contemplate different futures which would see them staying in their small corner of Reading, Cemetery Junction for the rest of their lives. Freddie, though, played by likeable newcomer Christian Cooke, soon realises that his dreams are far bigger than he first thought, and so the script writers very obviously send a message to their youthful target audience promoting self-fulfilment.

With Gervais, in particular, an artist who likes to exhibit his atheistic worldview through his work, there is not a hint of religion whatsoever in Cemetery Junction, in any shape or form. From these writers, this is a deliberate statement, coupled with the film’s theme of finding purpose in life, saying that to find meaning you do not need to have faith of any kind. Their intellectual foresight appears stunted, though, as at one point they compare the pointlessness of a man retiring at the end of a long and successful career with what they claim to be a more worthwhile life of doing what you please and pursuing your dreams. From a Christian point of view, without God in the equation, these two pursuits are as meaningless and futile as each other!

Its worldview aside, as a piece of British cinema, this is a refreshing departure from the unpolished, artistically under-achieving works which frequently appear among the offerings of the UK film industry. Unusually for Brits, Gervais and Merchant have embraced Hollywood’s influence and created a unique picture of British culture using American stylings.

Being a comedy as well as a drama, the brand of humour employed throughout, and for which the filmmakers are famous, is an acquired taste, characterised by an edgy and yet subtly effective melding of mean-spiritedness with far-reaching empathy. In the end the film delivers a confusing message mixing nihilism with optimism, but its likeability and technical finesse shine through, making Cemetery Junction a more than worthwhile film to watch.

Peter D. Marsay,
filmmaker/writer

© Evangelicals Now - June 2010
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