Film Review

'Four Lions'

Can suicide be funny?

With this controversial but shockingly humorous film from taboo slaying media hit man Chris Morris, it appears it can, and laugh out loud funny!

Chris Morris found fame as the writer-director behind channel 4’s Brass Eye, a shock of mockumentary designed to subvert the media’s projected demonization by upping the ante in the absurdity stakes. Showing CCTV footage of paedophiles dressed as schools and claiming “Genetically, paedophiles have more in common with crabs…”

This similar tactic spills over into ‘Four Lions’ by digging underneath the perceived perception of suicide bombers and asking, are they really as inhuman as their actions would suggest?

Given any situation a group of men rarely manages to bring a plan together, Chris Morris told Sundance: “Get five average blokes to try and organise something, they’re going to fuck it up…”. And this group of misdirected misfits is certainly no exception, even when they finally decide on what it is they’re actually trying to achieve.

Omar (Riz Ahmed) has the clearest and most focussed goal, to plan a strike for global Muslins, convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay) plans to “radicalize the moderates” by blowing up a mosque and is outraged when his brothers speak to him in Urdu, Omar’s blood brother Waj (Kayvan Novak) is so unbelievably stupid he’s easily convinced that self sacrifice is comparable to the “Rubber Dinghy Rapids” at Alton Towers, allowing him to bypass the cues and get straight on the ride.

But what keeps this farce grounded is the exploration of Omar and his family who remain fully aware of his plans of martyrdom. The film also cleverly holds back the satirical jabs with the majority of the humour coming from the individuals, group dynamics and their inability to get anything right. Carefully balanced with the fact not once are we allowed to forget the seriousness of what’s really going on with constant reminders of the danger both they and the general public are in.

It raises serious issues and makes you leave the cinema questioning the outside word by questioning the film itself, something strangely at odds but a welcome diversion for a film labelled as a comedy. In one telling scene the security services get a knowing piss take as two snipers take out a innocent fun runner because they can't tell the difference between a Wookie and the Honey Monster, one of many serious messages wrapped in a blanket of laughs.

Bound to offend more than a few people - in fact two people walked out of the preview screening I went to - but it’s a brave and genuinely hilarious film that get’s to the point as well as the heart.

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