Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)

Directed by: Declan Lowney
Country: UK / France

Movie Review: “Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa” is an action comedy directed by Declan Lowney and based on the fictional TV and radio presenter, performed by English actor Steve Coogan, who also created it together with Armando Ianucci (“In the Loop”) and other show writers for the BBC Radio 4 program ‘On the Hour’. If Alan Partridge became an undoubtedly success on British TV and radio, in this feature-film is just a character that scarcely shines in its tactless talks, behaviors, and personality. Irish filmmaker Declan Lowney was never able to drop his TV routines, evincing an approach that feels closer to the small screen rather than the big one. Coogan conveyed all the superficiality and repulsiveness in the representation of his own creation, this time wrapped in a fierce competition with the depressed and threatening DJ Pat Farrell, but after its end, I didn’t miss Partridge’s dodgy adventures and was almost relieved for not have to hear him again. The problem here, with the exception of Lynn, Partridge’s magnificent assistant, is that “Alpha Papa” wasn’t so hilarious as it should, stumbling too many times along the powerless plot and only creating sporadically impact in situations that, in a blink of an eye, fall over and over again in inconsequent triviality. Likewise its main character, “Alpha Papa” needed a bigger dose of art and cleverness to work out. That’s why the already proven good idea didn’t result, in this ho-hum cinematic experience.