Big Nothing revolves around Charlie, an everyman who gets caught up in a blackly comic mess of cash and dead bodies after meeting Gus, an American accented Simon Pegg.
The initial setup is pretty thin, the call centre setting a missed opportunity, as is the plot, characters and motives. One would hope that when embarking on a scheme, that it would be smart looking to begin with, at the very least smart enough to rope in someone you've only just met, but this scheme is quite foolish from the outset. Charlie's problems are not even fully realised enough to make him look desperate. The slim running time and impatience to get to the meat don't help. Charlie is also irredeemably stupid. An ex teacher with a PHD should know how to check for a pulse or that leaving fingerprints all over the scene of the crime is not the smartest thing one could do. Pegg's character just whines and bitches throughout and doesn't even cut a likable rogue figure. In fact, surprisingly, there's nothing to like about Gus, so why should we care? Director Jean-Baptiste Andrea conjures some nice images and uses some good ideas. The opening moonlit scene, the little girl's perspective from the swing and the animated description of the plan are all quite good, but often goes too far stylistically, for example his breaking the 180 degree rule constantly in the first act which serves only to disorientate and annoy.
The plot is full of twists which is normal for a film like this, but none really stick, aside from perhaps the closing. The rest just keeps getting more and more ridiculous as it goes on. In all, Big Nothing is a mixed bag with an ironic title, one of those films you watch and then immediately forget about. The Ice Harvest did a better job at this kind of thing and that was no masterpiece either.
Let's hope that Pegg and Schwimmer's Run Fatboy Run fares better than this. In the meantime, if you want black comedy, watch Very Bad Things instead.
The initial setup is pretty thin, the call centre setting a missed opportunity, as is the plot, characters and motives. One would hope that when embarking on a scheme, that it would be smart looking to begin with, at the very least smart enough to rope in someone you've only just met, but this scheme is quite foolish from the outset. Charlie's problems are not even fully realised enough to make him look desperate. The slim running time and impatience to get to the meat don't help. Charlie is also irredeemably stupid. An ex teacher with a PHD should know how to check for a pulse or that leaving fingerprints all over the scene of the crime is not the smartest thing one could do. Pegg's character just whines and bitches throughout and doesn't even cut a likable rogue figure. In fact, surprisingly, there's nothing to like about Gus, so why should we care? Director Jean-Baptiste Andrea conjures some nice images and uses some good ideas. The opening moonlit scene, the little girl's perspective from the swing and the animated description of the plan are all quite good, but often goes too far stylistically, for example his breaking the 180 degree rule constantly in the first act which serves only to disorientate and annoy.
The plot is full of twists which is normal for a film like this, but none really stick, aside from perhaps the closing. The rest just keeps getting more and more ridiculous as it goes on. In all, Big Nothing is a mixed bag with an ironic title, one of those films you watch and then immediately forget about. The Ice Harvest did a better job at this kind of thing and that was no masterpiece either.
Let's hope that Pegg and Schwimmer's Run Fatboy Run fares better than this. In the meantime, if you want black comedy, watch Very Bad Things instead.