LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comedian Steve Coogan steps back into his comfort zone with this first feature-length outing for his long-running signature character, Alan Partridge, a satirical creation born over 20 years ago on BBC radio and television. "Alan Partridge" is a sharply scripted comic thriller that playfully references Hollywood blueprints with the same affectionate irony that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright use in their trans-Atlantic genre homages. There are subtle allusions to "Dog Day Afternoon," ''Die Hard" and "Falling Down" here, drawing comic energy from the pointed contrast between these big-city thrillers and this film's cozy setting in the sleepy provincial English city of Norwich.
The joint creation of several comedy writers, including Coogan himself but also "Veep" and "The Thick of It" creator Armando Iannucci, Partridge is a much-loved household name in his native Britain. A former sports reporter and spoof chat show host, he embodies an uncomfortably familiar kind of Middle English conservatism: outwardly worldly and confident but essentially prudish, parochial, chauvinistic, narcissistic and mildly sociopathic.
One of the pleasures of Coogan's most famous creation is how the Partridge character has evolved in real time, chronicling two decades of shifting fortunes through various radio shows, TV series, live concerts and even a best-selling mock-memoir in 2011. As a consequence, he has grown into a layered, almost novelistic creation, vain and pompous but not entirely charmless. The narrative of "Alan Partridge" follows on from both the book and most recent TV series, "Mid Morning Matters," although it functions as a stand-alone story. For first-time viewers, no background reading is required.
Partridge is now in his mid-fifties and clinging onto his career as a show host on an ailing digital radio channel in his home city of Norwich. But changes are imminent from the station's slick new management team, with either Partridge or his Irish DJ colleague Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney) likely to be fired in a cost-cutting, rebranding exercise. Farrell gets the boot, partly due to Partridge privately back-stabbing his friend, but soon afterward, the mentally fragile Irishman gatecrashes a staff party at the station with a shotgun. He takes 12 hostages, with Partridge becoming the go-between with police negotiators, a role he cynically relishes as a chance to boost his media profile.
In shifting from quick-fire, dialogue-driven farce to darkly funny thriller, "Alan Partridge" loses some of its comic edge. While the film's opening half hour is packed with perfectly honed one-liners, the siege section delivers a more uneven mix of slapstick and tension. Meaney is a heavyweight actor, and does a fine job of suggesting simmering madness beneath bluff surface charm, but the light-hearted hostage scenes never quite muster a convincing sense of jeopardy. Likewise the final chase sequence in the station's mobile broadcasting truck, with Partridge and Farrell co-hosting a live radio show as they drive. An inspired climax, but the delivery feels contrived and clumsy.
Shot largely in hand-held close-up by the veteran small-screen comedy and music director Declan Lowney, "Alan Partridge" feels like a great hour-long TV special that has been stretched to accommodate its thriller narrative. Though not the finest screen outing for Coogan's best-known alter ego, this is a worthy addition to the ever-growing Partridge archive, with enough weapons-grade comic zing in the first half to excuse the less sure-footed second.
"Alan Partridge," a Magnolia Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "language, brief violence and nudity." Running time: 90 minutes.
MPAA rating definition for R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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