- Starring
- David Earl, Chris Hayward, Louise Brealey
- Writers
- David Earl, Chris Hayward
- Director
- Jim Archer
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 90 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Brian and Charles features a heartwarming story centered around a lonely bumbling inventor whose life enters into an exciting adventure when one of his creations, a 7ft tall robot who loves cabbages, comes to life. It’s a story based on companionship and how true connections can occur from the most unlikely places.
Told in a mockumentary style, Brian and Charles is stocked full of charm and humor best expressed by the film’s leads and also its writers, David Earl and Chris Hayward. Earl plays the affable inventor and Hayward voices Charles whose deadpan robotic delivery offers some of the film’s funniest moments. Additionally, one of the best comedic aspects that never diminishes throughout the film is Charles’ design consisting of a mannequin head, washing machine body, and rubber gloves for hands. At first, he can be quite alarming, but as the audience becomes more comfortable with Charles’ physique the humorous situations he’s placed in only heightens further leading to some truly great moments involving arguments over the importance of sitting in the front seat when riding in a car, the diverse usage of cabbage, and how to properly sleep at night. And despite their very obvious differences, the film reaches a level of warmth as the duo’s friendship brings out strengths in one another while also helping each other confront their weaknesses.
Brian and Charles takes a truly bizarre and equally comical concept and wrap it around an endearing story offering a truly rewarding journey. Viewers can immediately relate to the overarching themes of Brian and Charles to the extent where it becomes effortless to cheer the evolution of two misunderstood figures who desperately want to become connected to something larger than themselves. Companionship can be a life-saving tool and through Brian and Charles’ odyssey, its power is on full display.
The film offers a clever examination of this theme that hides depth within its humor to tell a much more impactful story supported by just the right amount of cabbage.
*still courtesy of Sundance
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