DAVID BRENT: LIFE ON THE ROAD: A Tour Of Sadness, Monotony & Acceptance

David Brent: Life on the Road: A Tour of Sadness, Monotony, and Acceptance

David Brent: Life on the Road follows the popular Ricky Gervais character David Brent, from his mockumentary television series, The Office (2001-2003). The film picks up with Brent fifteen years after his appearance on the BBC2 documentary series. He is now working as a Sales Rep for a bathroom supply firm, Lavichem.

A few of his colleagues are sympathetic, especially Pauline (Jo Hartley), Nigel (Tom Bennett), and Karen (Mandeep Dhillon). Before diving into the rock star aspirations of the film, we see his workplace relationships, and his desire to have all his colleagues like him. We are introduced to the negative relationship he has with fellow sales rep, Jezza (Andrew Brooke).

His desire to pack up and take off from work to live as a rock star comes as a natural progression from his failed attempt at releasing a single, a cover of If You Don’t Know Me By Now, during the original run of The Office. The film breaks off from its predecessor by leaving the workplace behind, as he travels through Berkshire, spending too much money, hoping the group of people he hired to replace his old band mates will grow to like him.

The Monotony of Life

When we are introduced to Brent’s workplace life, we can feel his desire to go beyond the daily life of a sales rep. A documentary crew is filming him as he goes about his day selling toilet supplies. After being the boss in his previous documentary series, this revisit brings forth all his prior dreams, including that of being a rock star.

Early on, Brent displays a variety of offensive comedy characters, which leads him to a conversation with Miriam from HR about his continuous actions in the workplace. This works as a catalyst towards him bringing forth the idea of going on a tour and performing his songs, many of which are supposed to be accepting political anthems, but come across as inappropriate, but we always know he means well.

David Brent: Life on the Road: A Tour of Sadness, Monotony, and Acceptance
source: Entertainment One

The monotony does not stop once he’s out of the daily work environment. His life on the road is still not anywhere near his dreams. Instead of reuniting his old band, he had to hire new musicians to take over their spots, including Dom (Ben Bailey Smith), a rapper he befriended with the promise of being his manager, something in which he had no experience.

I enjoyed the way this film shaped and expanded on a character with which we are already familiar. Instead of feeling like the same thing on a feature film scale, this film was able to take this character and show the audience his personal struggles, while still making a film filled to the brim with uncomfortable laughs.

The Comedy is in the Music

So much of Life on the Road is about the sadness of David Brent, but this does not mean the film is not a comedy. Yes, some of the comedy comes from how awful he is being treated by the people in his life, but just as much of the comedy comes from how uncomfortable his music makes everyone else feel. In typical David Brent fashion, his jokes are insensitive, yet oddly accepting, at least in his mind.

The songs in the film all deliver the comedy we expect from the character. Seeing how he does not understand what could be offensive about his music adds another layer to the character. He truly thinks his music is accepting and appreciative of every group his songs mention. The fact that Ricky Gervais has a fairly enjoyable voice and ability to play music makes the lyrics that much funnier.

David Brent: Life on the Road: A Tour of Sadness, Monotony, and Acceptance
source: Entertainment One

Seeing the audience reactions throughout his tour is one of the highlights of the film. As he sings “Please Don’t Make Fun of the Disableds”, he dedicates it to an audience member in a wheelchair. As he is writing the lyrics to “Native American”, he has a wikipedia entry open, because he wants everything to be accurate, even though when performing this song, he wants Dom to come on stage wearing an offensive costume.

The Character Study in Comedy

One of the reasons I enjoyed Life on the Road was how it acts like an in-depth character study, rather than a typical comedy. Instead of making the entire film about the jokes David Brent tells, and the reactions of those around him, it really dove into the reasons he feels the need to surround himself with people he wants to impress. In a work environment, he constantly joked with his colleagues.

On the road, he kept trying to impress his band mates, who wanted to nothing to do with him. They shut him out of the tour bus, telling him they did not have the room. They would not spend time with him after the shows unless he paid them to do so. Instead of focusing only on the comedy of these moments, this film focused on the sadness of feeling like nothing you do will ever be good enough. Multiple times in the film, Brent talks to a therapist about his reasoning for planning a tour like this and using so much of his money on even the slight prospect of getting a record deal, something he knows is not a real possibility, even if he keeps feeding into it.

Life on the Road
source: Entertainment One

The film cuts between his time on tour and the people he left behind at Lavichem. This shows how these people he left behind do care for him, yet he never notices, and decides to chase after affection somewhere else, thinking he will never get it from his colleagues. Most of the film drives home the idea he is a depressing character, who will probably never get the affection he so obviously seeks, yet the ending shows a glimmer of hope, as he realizes the people he left behind did care. They missed him while he was gone, hoping he would come back from his tour, and realize the family he left behind when he went on tour.

Conclusion

Life on the Road was a poignant look into a character I never dreamed could be this interesting. The sadness of the character coming through in his comedic moments made this character study a film I definitely recommend, especially to fans of the original series. I do understand people may not like it, since it is a bit of a departure from what you might have loved about the original series, but I think enough of the original atmosphere is here for this to be a worthy addition to that story. The scenes back at the workplace he left behind were some of my favorite elements of the film, which makes sense for a follow up to The Office.

Did you think this was a good continuation of the character we saw in The Office? If you saw the film without any prior knowledge of the character. did you appreciate the character and the comedy of this film?

David Brent: Life on the Road is out now on DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK. It is available in the US on Netflix.


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