Mark Reviews Movies: BRIAN AND CHARLES

Brian and Charles, Focus Features

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 16, 2022

It's painfully apparent that Brian (David Earl) is so very, very lonely. He lives in a cottage, somewhere in the countryside outside a small town in Wales, and all day and night, he dreams up and creates these inventions that pop into his head. He was in a bad place, Brian says at the start of Brian and Charles, and had hit a particular low in his life, but the tinkering helped. Well, it helped his mental state, but that loneliness persists, even if he won't admit it aloud.

To be clear, director Jim Archer's movie, which follows Brian and an unexpected friend, is a comedy, although the description of the protagonist and his situation probably doesn't point one to think in that direction. To get it out of the way, the friend is a robot that Brian builds, using technology that is far beyond anything one might think he'd be able to dig out of the garbage piles that the locals leave lying around for official or amateur collectors.

It doesn't matter how this robot is constructed or comes to life. It only matters that it does, that it provides Brian with a bit of company, and that it serves as a funny character in its own right.

For a while, the movie, written by Earl and Chris Hayward (an adaptation of a short film the two and Archer made a few years ago), understands the potential within the simplicity of this premise. Archer presents Brian's story as a faux documentary, for reasons that are probably more about loyalty to the source material and less about implementing the gimmick in some noteworthy way. It's a good enough excuse, perhaps, for Brian to say how content he is to the invisible crew behind the camera (Three words spoken off-screen let us know that people are following Brian with filming equipment). While he says those things, we witness how clearly miserable he is.

The turning point, after some funny material that shows off Brian's various and mostly useless inventions (One, a flying cuckoo clock, bursts completely into flames just after he gets it past his property line), comes with a seemingly throwaway moment. Brian is standing by his fence, and a couple of sheep walk down the road. He greets them, and immediately after doing so, we can see the look of recognition of how utterly pathetic that gesture is.

It's a good thing Brian found a mostly intact mannequin head on his most recent hunt for supplies, because it gives him the idea to build a human-looking robot that could keep him company. Obviously, he says it's to help him out around the house, but considering that his daily tasks amount to inventing and boiling cabbage for every meal each day, the robot is obviously for companionship.

With that turning point for Brian out of the way, the movie itself has one, as well. The robot, which names itself "Charles" after dismissing a couple other options with childish disgust, is a friend for Brian, which makes the relationship almost as pathetic as greeting sheep and maybe expecting a response, and it is also akin to the man's child, which makes the character—and the movie, for that matter—a funnier entity.

The robot is played by Hayward, with his legs visible—wearing sensible trousers, naturally—and the rest of his body hidden beneath the bulky box of Charles' torso. "My tummy is a washing machine," the robot says with the kind of innocent pride that endears Charles to us immediately. The head is that of the mannequin, and an amusing touch is that it sports a wig and some glasses. The costuming makes it look professorial, while Charles' personality is that of a kid—learning and quite pleased with each new discovery—becoming a moody teenager—talking back to Brian (and finding ways to technically not talk back to him, such as adding a pause between the syllables of "whatever"), listening to loud music in its room, wanting independence.

All of this is quite funny, especially in how precise the characterization of Charles is—from the way the robot's maturation leads to so many recognizable situations, made absurd by the sight of the ridiculously designed robot, to how Hayward's vocal performance will add just a tinge of emotion to certain words within his otherwise computer-sounding intonation. Earl is fine as the desperate friend/frustrated parent/straight man to the robot, although his performance feels less stably defined, considering how indecisive the movie itself is about who and what Brian should be.

Eventually, that uncertainty takes over the simple and charming little tale. Brian has an awkward romance with Hazel (Louise Brealey), which never develops enough to be more than a joke, and has to deal with the schemes of a local family of bullies, led by Eddie (Jamie Michie). The robot becomes decreasingly important or, for that matter, present as these characters and plot threads come into play, and that's a mistake.

The assumption in adding these elements, of course, is that the story of a man and his juvenile robot cannot stand on its own. Maybe that would be the case, and perhaps the story and gimmick of Brian and Charles can only sustain a short. We won't know, though, because this movie doesn't give them a chance to try.

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