Rent Bruno (2009)

Unfortunately, whilst there are some staggeringly funny moments, the game’s up for Sacha now - Bruno review by TB

It’s worth remembering that, in 2006, Borat was a genre and humour defining phenomenon. Nothing had ever been seen like it, and certainly not released on the scale that it was in cinemas. It pushed the boundaries in the most extreme ways possible at that time, but the sharpness & wince-inducing humour of the writing coupled with Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedic perfection meant it was in many ways the flawless undercover/prank comedy.

The members of the public featured, who let their guards completely down and in the process made absolute fools of themselves, showed a fascinating and at times cruel world not often featured in mainstream entertainment. But even the scripted moments, like the naked wrestling, were fresh and hysterically funny.

However, there is a flipside to this herculean success and it’s sadly something which shows definitively why you cannot, metaphorically speaking, put the genie back in the bottle: the vast majority of the world now know not only Baron Cohen but also his methods as well. And those people are now on their guard and also much more suspicious of everyone and everything. So when all that is put together, the result is a severely limited landscape in which to try and pull those sort of stunts.

There’s no getting away from it: Bruno is a sloppy, uneven and turgid mess. It is so obvious, despite the best efforts of the editor, that the sketches/set-ups are either rumbled immediately (so are not shown really at all) or people go along with it for a little while, whilst still keeping their guard up, then will walk away or blow Sacha’s cover, meaning the vignette abruptly finishes before this is seen.

For me though, the biggest reason why the film didn’t work well as a whole, and also destroyed in many ways the central theme of Cohen’s comedy, is the Bruno character itself. The genius element of Borat was that although he was himself rampantly sexist and racist and this used as a cover to trick people into lowering their guard, as a character, he was a sweet, amiable and good-natured person. So there was a warming to him and someone you could root for underneath the toxicity, but importantly people didn’t treat him differently.

But Bruno is as far away from that as it’s possible to be. He is a disgusting, shrill, vain and extremely unpleasant character. His behaviour, tantrums and general demeanour are so repellent that the whole set up of and critique of people treating him differently because of his sexuality is completely voided. The main reason people shun and look at him in disgust, whilst there may absolutely be elements of homophobia in the mix, is because he is a disgusting person. So the premise collapses.

But this isn’t to say that there aren’t some unbelievably funny moments. My favourites were the TV pilot group, the psychic and the final MMA fight at the end. There are also some killer one lines from people who didn’t realise what was happening. My own favourite was when Bruno attempted to get married. The reverend was then confronted with the situation, asks a question, then stops himself just says wearily “I don’t even know why I’m asking that question...”

If you are a fan of Cohen’s comedy, there is absolutely stuff to love here, but many will be disappointed. And as much as it was huge progress forward for an openly gay character/protagonist to be in a top grossing film, unfortunately the result leaves much to be desired.

Entertaining if a little disjointed - Bruno review by CP Customer

Bruno was funny ... in parts. It wasn't as sharply observed or cutting edge as Borat but it was entertaining all the same.

It did feel slightly like various sketches strung together but we weren't expecting cinema gold, rather some light entertainment and it delivered.