Director: Larry Charles
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen & Gustaf Hammarsten
Funny in places, Bruno is enjoyable but fails to deliver the laughs or the scathing insights into prejudice that Borat achieved in 2006.
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, already famous in television for his fake Staines born rapper Ali G and his TV interviews where he lured many well known politicians into embarrassing themselves unsuspectingly, Cohen finally achieved global stardom when a second TV creation, Borat, made the successful transition to the big screen that Cohen had failed to accomplish satisfactorily with Ali G. Virtually unknown in the United States, Cohen was able to take his fictitious Kazakhstan reporter to America to interview various religious and political groups and celebrities and expose their ignorance and prejudices regarding foreigners. A huge success, Borat soon saw Cohen’s character become widely recognised as audiences either embraced the humour or were offended by it. With such success it was only a matter of time for Cohen to attempt and encore which now results in his third creation, Austrian Gay fashion star Bruno, to come to cinemas.
Having exposed some of the xenophobic and even anti-Semitic attitudes in areas of American society, Cohen has now turned his attention to confronting homophobia and in also parodying the fashion industry. Bruno, after an accident on a fashion runway involving a suit made of Velcro, finds himself blacklisted from the European fashion circuit. In an attempt to revive his ailing career, Bruno, along with his faithful assistant Lutz, head to America in a quest to become the most famous Austrian since Hitler. Bruno’s quest to become famous involves attempts to launch his own celebrity talk show, bring peace to the Middle East, adopt an African baby and eventually try and become straight and along the way meet and interview various celebrities, religious officials, politicians and unsuspecting citizens.
Bruno, whilst sometimes funny, fails to quite reach the heights that Cohen’s previous film Borat achieved. Whether Cohen’s fame as a result of Borat is a contributing factor is difficult to say though Cohen’s Bruno often fails to illicit as many incriminating responses from his targets in this film as Cohen had in his past film with many subjects choosing to cease talking altogether or leaving interviews before anything truly revealing or damaging can be said. A bigger factor for why Bruno succeeds less than Borat could be because with Bruno, Cohen has cast his aim too broadly. With the character of Bruno embodying a flamboyant Gay stereotype that has already been parodied by many films and TV that Cohen’s contribution feels flat in comparison with perhaps many of his intended targets becoming suspicious fairly soon during their encounters with the character. In addition to the Gay stereotype on display, Bruno also casts a broad parody of the fashion industry that only occasionally amuses but was accomplished in a more successful fashion by Ben Stiller’s Zoolander in 2001 though the willingness of parents in one scene to allow their children to be degraded and endangered in the name of fame stands out as one of the film’s highlights. There are other scenes in Bruno that do succeed to generate laughs including a talk show appearance reveals his adopted African baby to an African American audience, a visit to a swinger’s party and a cage fight finale where excess manages to amuse are all scenes that are as memorable and amusing as similar in Borat.
Sacha Baron Cohen is enjoyable in his role as Bruno, though unlike Borat his character lacks much charm or sympathy often being too narcissistic to really engage with. Cohen’s only real stand out moment comes at the finale when he reveals Bruno’s new heterosexual alter-ego Straight Dave whose appearance and mannerisms are a stark contrast to Bruno’s and reminds the audience of Cohen’s skills as a performer. More enjoyable is Gustaf Hammarsten as Bruno’s faithful, loving and suffering assistant Lutz who gives Bruno a more sympathetic companion with which to interact with.
Overall, Bruno is entertaining and features some worthwhile scenes that will be remembered and discussed, unfortunately, the film lacks focus and with its stereotypes so broad and its targets for humour so wide, and Bruno just isn’t as funny as Borat or as Cohen’s TV incarnations of his characters.
Rating: 2/5
