Heading into a Sacha Baron Cohen movie, there is a certain amount of expectations that boundaries will be stretched and perhaps, just perhaps, you may laugh at quite a few of those moments. And for those out-there scenes (some that find your hand covering your mouth in shock) that potentially get you rolling in the aisle with hilarity… well, you may just hate yourself for LOLing so much! That is exactly the case with his latest, The Brothers Grimsby.
Cohen stars as Nobby, and we find him as an otherwise satisfied adult. He lives in the small, uber-poor British community of Grimsby. It is a place where the residents put the fan in fanatic for football and their love of England’s national team knows no bounds. He and his soul mate Dawn (Rebel Wilson, recently seen in How to be Single) have 11 kids. The emptiness in his life comes from one thing, but it is huge. He misses his brother. See, he and Sebastian were separated when they were young and he has spent the better part of 30 years searching for him.
One day, he catches a break. He learns that a man who fits the description of his brother, and is also named Sebastian (Mark Strong), is going to be at a London upper class event. Nobby heads to the British capital to finally reunite with his long lost sibling. The only thing is Sebastian is a highly trained spy and one of MI6’s best. He hasn’t been hiding from Nobby, per se, he’s just been doing jobs that require him to keep his identity a secret. You can imagine when Nobby and Sebastian are reunited, it doesn’t go that well for the latter and suddenly, he’s the subject of an international manhunt that finds the brothers connected at the hip, whether Sebastian wants it or not.
Cohen’s background in sketch comedy comes through on many occasions throughout The Brothers Grimsby. What he does so well, as co-screenwriter, is inter-connect these moments into a somewhat cohesive story that spoofs the spy world and also is firmly in the Cohen wheelhouse of envelope-pushing comedy.
The story takes our brothers across the globe, from South Africa to Chile, and allows Cohen some serious landscapes for his patented brand of humor. For example, there’s a bit with an elephant in Africa that honestly breaks the envelope, more than pushes it. And then, you’ll never look at fireworks the same way again after a bit in Chile. Those are just two moments of many that populate The Brothers Grimsby that you’ve come to expect from Cohen, yet are still shocking because he’s finding new ways to delve deeper into what we think we can stomach and still call humor.
That’s’ what Cohen has always excelled at. How uncomfortable can he make you, and still elicit a humorous response from the audience? The answer to that question in The Brothers Grimsby is quite squirmy and the results are downright hilarious.
Strong proves that the highly trained British actor is game for diving into Cohen’s pool of comedic mayhem. We all know he can play an international spy with serious aplomb, but to do so opposite one of the more ridiculous (and we mean that in the most flattering of ways) comics working today, well that takes some serious gifts in the thespian department and also in self-control.
Cohen manages to make a few points with his latest. See, he does that. During his run with Da Ali G show, he was a running commentary on our society, all while dropping jaws across the globe that would result in major laughter. He did that with Borat where he forced Americans to put a mirror up to themselves and hopefully (we did) laugh at what is seen. Cohen didn’t have the same success with Bruno or The Dictator, but he is back in that department with The Brothers Grimsby.
Believe it or not, there are lessons to be learned here. The most important one is universal… the love of family reigns supreme — even if that means sucking poison out of your brother’s balls to save his life.
Grade: B