Wide Blue Yonder

Brian Cox plays a happy go lucky salty sea dog who is determined to bury his recently departed best friend at sea, against the wishes of just about everyone.

Whimsical, gently comedy with some funny lines and scenes occasionally punctuated with just about palatable sentiment. It lacks an element of panache that it badly needs, but the cast are fine, it's nice to see Lauren Bacall and all in all makes for a pleasant but hardly groundbreaking 90 minutes.

I'm not sure people realize this, but you can actually watch Wide Blue Yonder (2010) for free online at wideblueyonderthemovie.com. I don't know when this site became available, but I streamed the whole movie for free a couple of days ago and all I had to do was basically enter my name and email address.

But why is this movie so hard to find and not available on DVD or anything? I saw it at the Emden Film Festival when I was visiting some friends and keep waiting for it to become available on Netflix here but it never does. I love these kind of quirky indie Euro movies, so this was right up my alley. You will not even believe how crazy Brian Cox looks and acts in this movie! He doesn't usually do comedies like this, so this is a pleasant surprise because he's actually really funny and goofy in the movie. To me, the acting was really good and the writing was sharp so I don't get why people haven't seen or heard about this movie.

For reasons that are not immediately clear, this has only just (in 2019) had a release at cinemas in the UK and to be honest, it isn't really a cinema film. The comedic performances by Brian Cox are all the more appreciable because they are so unlike anything he has done elsewhere; his dancing around in his underwear (and we are not talking Calvin Klein, here!) cannot help but make you smile. Otherwise it is a gentle old-age rebellion film with occasional appearances by Lauren Bacall with James Fox making for a decent, if rather typecast, foil to Cox. Ideal for telly between Christmas and New Year to make you feel good.

I like this film because it works for me on many levels. The basic story line is that a sailor named Skip has died and wanted to be buried at sea. This is not the done thing this century so the authorities have organized a proper church yard burial. However his life long friend Wally wants the sea burial to happen and stealing the corpse is the way to make this happen.

Writer director Robert Young and his producers have set out to make a little story told well and they have succeeded. It's a sensible use of film funding money which was able to attract Brian Cox , Lauren Bacall and James Fox.

The script has some good laughs and the support characters look and act well.

If given the opportunity this is the sort of film I would like to make.

Wide Blue Yonder is a light hearted black comedy not with out charm. A British-Norwegian co-operation, with English dialog all through, and star power de luxe.

And old sea man without any family left, Skip, has just passed away on the old peoples home, where we also find his friends with his Scottish born buddy Wally (Brian Cox) as a front runner. Wally has promised his old friend a proper sea mans' burial out at sea, something the attendant of the home won't allow. He gather his friends in a cunning plan to get Skip buried out in the wet North Sea, instead of in the cold ground.

The cast consist of well known actors and comedians Brian Fox, Lauren Bacall, James Fox, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Kåre Conradi, Nicholas Hope, Robert Skjærstad, Hege Schøyen, Elsa Lystad, Ane Rygh an so on, as well as additional cameos of comedians like "the Norwegian Rowan Atkinson" Øyvind Blunck.

What a cast! And they all do their job, though I think the comical timing would have helped with some Norwegian dialog as well, this being a story filmed in the western Norwegian town of Haugesund. (Where the Norwegian International Film Festival is held in September every year. This film was of course picked out for the program in 2012.) Yeah, in 2012, two years after it was finished, because this film production came in severe problems both financially and due to fights with the actors unions. Due to the financial crisis, one of the production companies went bankrupt, and the film was finally saved by distributor Europa Film and the Norwegian investor Ola Sandvold, which actually was an extra in this film. He reached down his pockets to fulfill the last economical barriers.

Filming was done i 2007. The release was delayed for almost five years, and maybe also therefore, this film was only released in UK, Norway and USA, all quite limited releases. It was also shown at the Cannes Film Festival and FilmFest Emden.

At the premiere, the films' problems was more interesting to the media than the actual film, and critics gave mostly thumbs down. So is it a bad movie?

No it isn't. Still the film is annoyingly enough blemished with a bad poster, bad music in a not very well suited classic music score, like the film is filmed out in the open ocean, and some of the comical timing is lost in Norwegians trying to talk English with their best accents. When this is noted, it's quite a charming little film. It's always a pleasure to see these actors giving of their best. Not a master piece by far, but still a pleasant watch a Sunday afternoon. The film gets more funnier the longer it lasts, and is more charming than black.

The film gives homages to well known films like Superman and Four Weddings... as well as putting Øyvind Blunck as priest. You remember Atkinson in that role?

The film could be seen for free online at the film's official website for some time, but it's taken down now.