Review: "Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa"

I’ve never actually seen or heard any of the other many incarnations of the character of Alan Partridge – who’s appeared in multiple forms in television and radio appearances over the past two decades -- but in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa there’s a sense of this character being fully formed on arrival. Steve Coogan slips into the role with an effortless familiarity, and the whole film's vibe gives off a reunion quality. But that doesn’t preclude enjoyment for any new arrivals to Coogan’s comically full of himself character. In fact, it leads to the film spending minimal amounts of time on introduction and a maximum amount of time on jokes and playing up the central premise.  

We find Partridge as a disc jockey at a small-time radio station in Norwich, a place slowly becoming more corporate and cold to compete in the crowded marketplace. This especially infuriates his longtime colleague Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney), whose program feels fuddy duddy amongst the digitizing and automating sea changes. When the station is bought out, Pat seems like the obvious candidate for the cutting block; something that is exacerbated when Partridge blunders his effort to defend Pat in front of the company board, arising out of the realization that the company is picking between Pat and himself for the axing. Pat snaps and, with shotgun at hand, he holds the station and many of its workers hostage. 

Partridge unwittingly becomes the mediator between Pat and the police, as Pat believes that Partridge is the only one who gave a damn about him before his firing. But Partridge’s narcissism and short-sidedness only protract the situation and turn it into a media spectacle. The film becomes a black comical take on the more dramatically rigorous work of a film like Dog Day Afternoon with Partridge playing up the media craze in hopes of securing his employment and spinning it into a lucrative job deal. 

Director Declan Lowney doesn’t add much to the way the film is shot. Lowney’s background is largely in television and the film has a lot of the functional filmmaking common in television shooting. Instead, the film’s script (credited to Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, and Peter Baynham) brings much of the film’s strength, playing to the chaos and stress of the hostage crisis as well as Partridge’s egotism. This is usually done by matching up the incongruity of the situation’s seriousness and how lightheartedly the film and the character’s tend to treat it. For instance, Partridge and Pat host a hit radio show from within the “siege” by drawing on viewers interested in the crisis. But perhaps, at the end of the day, it is best that someone like Lowney helmed the film as it is essentially an extended episode of television, with barely enough plot to sustain itself for ninety minutes. 

The film has some casual commentary on the changing state of media, especially for an aging medium like radio. But this is way in the background. More foregrounded but still low on the film’s mind are questions related to aging. Both Partridge and Pat are well into their fifties and looking back on a life that hasn’t gone entirely satisfactorily or as planned. Pat and his dark plans force Partridge to confront some of his delusions and selfish ways. Partridge is a massive dick at almost all times, but there’s something fundamentally sad about him. Like The Office’s Michael Scott, or, more appropriately, David Brent, he desperately wants to be liked but doesn’t quite realize he’s going about it in deeply misguided ways. At the end of the day, Partridge is going to do the right thing but it’s only after massive effort and radical outside circumstances force him to that point. 

In the intervening time before the buried conscience of Partridge arrives, Coogan delights in his role, one he has fine-tuned and honed over the years. Coogan simply knows how to play this character to the hilt. The film is farcical because Partridge is such an exaggerated figure. Initially the character was created as commentary on a particular type of media personality, and that satirical, self-consciously preposterous quality carries over into the film. Alan Partridge is a darn funny film that still manages to have a soft, mushy center focused on its characters and their endearing shortcomings.

Grade: B