DVD review: Cemetery Junction

The coming of age story of three boys.

At least I have to admit that this movie has a highly topical subject. The transition to the work force and what it means for the dreams and aspirations is not a very popular subject. Obviously this is caused by his own very nature, if you think about it this is very depressing stuff, in the 80s young boys faced the prospect of joining a daily grind with the real possibility of never getting to a nice financial situation (which by the way is still better than what we are facing now which is the prospect of joining the masses of unemployed with the real possibility of not ever getting to the daily grind part).

Ricky Gervais, the creator of “the office” for the uninitiated, approached the subject as a comedy and even managed to squeeze a laugh or two out of it. The problem, as always with these dramas – comedies, is that there is an incredibly fine line between the two, so when he manages to stick to it Gervais obtain riveting stuff but often he gets a clash of tones where the dramatic part is set aside.

Probably I’m getting cynical but I can’t really sympathize with what the protagonists do on their work place, if I must take it seriously I would have them fired because “it’s you workplace and you don’t act like a moron on your workplace!”.

Also the whole dichotomy “daily dream crushing grind” versus “going away” that permeates the movie is too simplicistic. I understand that this is symbolic of taking our chances and trying to better ourselves but I can’t help but snicker when they declare that “They are going away, don’t know where”, you know that you have to pay your rent also abroad? It’s not like they give away free stuff in Paris.

On the other side the adult population of Cemetery Junction is depicted in a much more interesting way, their casual racism, their understanding of the world and their quiet strength beneath the anonymous façade is pitch perfect. In retrospect I would have much preferred a movie about them.