Blu-ray Review: THE DRUMMOND WILL - Harkens Back To The Best of British Comedies

Like offbeat, quirky black comedies from Britain? You€™re going to want to check out The Drummond Will€but read our review here first! After their estranged father dies, brothers Marcus (Mark Oosterveen) and Danny (Phillip James) have to return to the small village they grew up in to attend the funeral and deal with his estate. However, proving less simple than they had initially expected, they soon discover that an old friend of their father has broken into the family home and proceeded to hide in a cupboard with a stash of money! The brothers decide to keep the old man captive whilst they conclude how best to handle the situation, but inadvertently kill him€ Leading to a series of bizarre incidents as they attempt to cover up their misdeed, Marcus and Danny soon find that they are slowly but surely decreasing the population in the small community€ With its roots firmly set within mimicking early farcical British comedies, The Drummond Will quickly defines its tone as a dark comedy. Focusing primarily on the characters of the two brothers, director and co-writer Alan Butterworth spends an immense amount of time developing them. Danny is extremely charismatic but irritatingly over-optimistic, whilst Marcus is up tight and firmly set within his €˜city-slicker€™ ways. Neither appears to fit within the confines of the village they grew up in and they are immediately set against the array of supporting characters that inhabit their former home. James and Oosterveen are excellent within their roles, perfectly capturing the essence of their characters and making them both realistic and entirely believable even in the most extreme elements of the narrative. Remaining just the right side of over-the-top, both actors deliver their witty lines and snide remarks with an excellent sense of comic timing. The supporting cast give similarly entertaining performances, apart from verging a little further into exaggeration than the leads do. It€™s a shame that the supporting characters are not further developed as they are equally as interesting as the brothers and provide as much of the comedy. It is this decision to refrain from delving as in depth as he could have that lets Butterworth€™s film down. More time could certainly have been spent divulging the relationship between the brothers and their father, as well as touching more upon the rest of the villagers. The quality of the Blu-ray release is solid, with the black and white cinematography lending a rather aged look to the film. However, images remain crisp and clear, which betrays the films true position as a contemporary production. Audio is similarly proficient, with dialogue always clear and a high level of expressive ambient sound. The disc unfortunately doesn€™t come with any special features. Overall, The Drummond Will is an interesting film that certainly harks back to some of Britain€™s early comedies. However, the darker tone means that it lacks a certain charm that was in abundance in these films. It€™s impossible to compare The Drummond Will to The Ladykillers for example €“ as there is a certain innocence still to the black comedy plot of the latter, which is nowhere to be found in the former €“ and yet it appears that this is what Butterworth hoped to achieve. With nothing but the film on the disc there€™s no other reason to purchase the disc, however, if murderous comedies are what you like, you could do a lot worse than this! The Drummond Will is out now on Blu-ray!