Name: Lift
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2007-03-14
Duration: 30 min
Rating: 7.4
Cast: Douglas Hodge, Nina Wadia, Siobhan Redmond

A perfectly normal day sees four people in a lift when it breaks down between floors. Paul is a businessman keen to make it to a presentation to avoid a rival getting ahead of him. Sunita has been stuck in two lifts before this one and is an old hand at it now. Christabel is an eccentric woman while Rocco is a hoodie who happens to have a phobia about most things in the lift. As minutes turn into hours, they all start to grate on one another.

The third film in the BBC's Tight Spot season of one-off comedies sees a typically enclosed scenario with four characters all grating on one another. It is hardly an inspired scenario and accordingly the material doesn't really grip or engage as much as I hoped it would. I think the problem is that the material is not particularly inspiring and the "jokes", such as they are, mostly feel like they were written independently of one another and then rolled into a script. This isn't helped by the way the characters are not particularly convincing or sharp and they end up just bellowing and swinging around within the lift.

The cast don't really have a lot to work with as a result. Hodge makes the most noise but has little below this. Wadia is a strange character and is quite reserved in her performance. Redmond has a supposedly flamboyant character but does nothing with it and is quite dull. Meanwhile someone thought it a good idea to give Hardiker a terrible accent to work with so that he is left looking like a poor Ali G copy.

Overall then, a fairly uninspiring comedy. Broad and basic enough to draw a few chuckles but not much more than that.

The comedy genre refers to a category of entertainment that aims to amuse and entertain audiences by using humor, wit, and comedic situations. Comedies are created with the primary intention of eliciting laughter and providing lighthearted enjoyment. They encompass a wide range of styles, tones, and themes, appealing to various tastes and audiences.

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Part of the BBC's "Tight Spot" comedy season, telling the story of four misfits are stuck in a lift.

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