Funny Cow is about a stand-up comedienne (Maxine Peake) taking
on the men at their own game in the dingy working men’s clubs of the 1970s. It
is in one such place in the north of England where she sees the depressive Lenny
(Alun Armstrong) up on stage, going through the motions with his dire material,
and effectively dying, that inspires her in the first place.
When she talks to him about his act, he assures her that
‘women aren’t funny’, and suggests she tries singing or stripping instead but
it is comedy that she wants to do. Comedy is a release for her from her
miserable life.
From a childhood living with an abusive father (Stephen Graham)
through to a dysfunctional marriage to the violent and controlling Bob (Tony
Pitts) via a mother (Lindsey Coulson) driven to drink by life.
Finally leaving her husband and taking up with bookshop owner
Angus (Paddy Considine), who takes her to see foreign films which fall way
outside her comfort zone, turns out to be not that much of a trade up.
Meanwhile she struggles to gain a foothold in the world of the gungy pub carpet. She suffers
from terrible nerves when she attends an audition where she is up against a
singer (Richard Hawley), a ventriloquist (Vic Reeves) and an Elvis impersonator
(John Bishop) with his dog (Bilko).
Eventually she blags her way on to stage when the promoter
has little choice when faced with an empty stage. There she finally gains
acceptance, and later success, but only by winning round the hostile audience by
embracing the 1970's reality of doing racist and homophobic gags, while dealing with
the inevitable hecklers.
In the film we see her after her success, then before, then after
again in series of Dave Allen like scenes in front of the camera. Scenes that
for me distract from the narrative of the film and therefore drag down what was a generally strong film.
The later scenes seem to show
her just as cynical and disillusioned with everything as she was before she
became a comedienne. Even being a success doesn’t appear to have brought
her any happiness but then she probably never expected it to.
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