Three and Out

Three & Out



Apart from Ricky Gervais, MacKenzie Crook has benefited most from his part in the brilliant British comedy ‘The Office’. With supporting roles in three ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies under his belt, it was obviously time to give the man a leading role. Or, so we thought...

In Three & Out, Crook plays Paul, a glum train driver whose ideal life would be living in seclusion in the Scottish Highlands. He carries around a picture of the small isolated cottage in his pocket.

He thinks his dreams could come true when his workmates tell him that if he accidentally kills three people with his train, he’ll be retired with 10 years full pay; Cash lump sum. Having already killed two, Paul seeks out someone suicidal to throw themselves under his train.

Hitting the self-murder hotspots, he eventually stumbles on Tommy (Colm Meaney), a down-and-out hobo with nothing to live for. Paul offers him £1500 to top himself using the train.

Looking after his investment, Paul accompanies Tommy as he tries to make peace with his wife and daughter (Imelda Staunton and Gemma Arterton). Along the way he learns that seclusion isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

A comedy about profiting from suicide was never going to work really was it? The emotional back story is too heavy for laughing out loud. We watch a man who’s close to the edge making amends for all his life’s mistakes intercut with gross-out shit gags.

We’re also meant to believe that Gemma Arterton would have anything to do with a beanpole freak like Paul, let alone seduce him. Even Paul utters the words “why me?”

With such great actors as Colm Meaney and Imelda Staunton in the cast, Crook is relegated to the background in his own movie. He hasn’t the charisma to make his dull character charming and ends up, as usual, playing a secondary role.

Verdict 4/10
Never fuses the two genres properly and fails to establish Crook as a bona fide Actor.