Dir. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, UK , 2010, Dur 95 mins

Cast: Christian Cooke , Tom Hughes, Jack Doolan, Felicity Jones, Ralph Fiennes, Ricky Gervais

Review by Carlie Newman

If you are looking for an uproarious comedy like a movie version of The Office, then this film is not it. What Cemetery Junction gives us, however, is a drama about coming of age, leaving home and relationships with families. Set in 1973 it tells of the friendship between three working class lads in their early 20s who have known each other since childhood and are near neighbours in a small town in England . Freddie (Christian Cooke) gets a job selling life insurance and looks forward to climbing the job ladder and ending up wealthy enough to have a nice home, good wife and kids. Bruce (Tom Hughes) is full of swagger and fights anyone who says or does something with which he disagrees. He works in a factory and resents his stay-at-home father who drinks, and, he believes, let his mother leave without a fight. Snork (Jack Doolan), who works as an assistant Station Master, is the joker who tries hard, but unsuccessfully, to get a girlfriend. Life begins to change for all of them when Freddie meets up with his school sweetheart, Julie (Jones) and finds she is engaged to his manager, Mike Ramsey and is the daughter of Mr Kendricks (Fiennes), the owner of the Life Assurance Company. Although Freddie aspires to the lifestyle of the Kendricks, he gradually realises that there may be more to life than material wealth. Julie in turn sees her mother's life and realises that she may not be able to pursue her career as a photographer, if she marries Ramsey. All the boys talk of leaving but the night before they are due to leave sees decisions taken which change all their young lives.

Although the small town is unnamed, it is Reading , where a real Cemetery Junction exists. There are a number of small parts in which well-known British actors show their skills for comic timing, as with Gervais as Freddie's somewhat racist father, who works in a factory, and his Grandmother (the excellent Anne Reid). There are good actors in other roles which show the nuances of adult relationships, such as Emily Watson as Mrs Kendricks, who suffers not just the lack of love from her husband but also his complete disregard for her feelings and even her existence. Fiennes as Mr Kendricks demonstrates the worst aspects of someone who started small and has worked his way up the ladder ruthlessly and it looks as though Ramsey, as played by Matthew Goode, is following his example.

However, it is the performances of the young ones, which give the film its character, and the three lads plus Julie have a lovely on screen camaraderie on screen which has obviously been developed off set as well and allowed to show on screen through the efforts of Gervais and Merchant. The directors, who also co-wrote the film, have captured the look, sounds and spirit of the 70s and produced a film that, although not full of events on any grand scale, shows a realistic picture of young people coming to terms with themselves, their lives and their families and friends.