It starts with Laurence Sterne's 1767 novel "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," a notoriously hard book to read. The story is full of digressions. (For example, Tristram, the title character/narrator isn't even born until the book is more than half over!) Many have speculated that the absurd novel would be impossible to adapt into a movie. Director Michael Winterbottom took up the challenge, and came up with the high-concept "Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story." He took a satirical approach: about twenty minutes of the movie is devoted to scenes from the book. Then the movie digresses from the story entirely, and goes behind the scenes to the making of the "Tristram Shandy" movie. Then it becomes a movie about making a movie adapted from a book about writing a book! The best explanation for the roundabout nature of the movie (and the book) is best explained by Patrick Curator, played by Stephen Fry: in the book, Tristram Shandy tries to write his life story, but it keeps getting away from him. This symbolizes that life is filled with distractions and complications. Steve Coogan stars as Tristram Shandy, as well as his father, Walter Shandy, plus a fictionalized version of himself. He plays his own persona as a frustrated star, dealing with a girlfriend and baby, filming hardships, a few scandals, and the thought of his co-star, Rob Brydon, getting more screen time than him. The story might be hard to follow, but it fits with the original source material.
Review of Tristram Shandy
