If you’ve ever seen The Inbetweeners, you’ll know exactly what to expect from The Inbetweeners on the big screen: cheesy, cringeworthy, immature humour and plenty of bewildering sexual slang, all with a surprisingly relatable human element, laser-targeted at adolescent males.
The movie pretty much sticks to this formula, with only a few tweaks for the big screen. If you like the The Inbetweeners, you’ll like The Inbetweeners Movie. The jokes are a bit lighter, a bit cheesier, not quite as clever or as embarrassingly cringeworthy, largely due to having to stretch the show to over three times its usual length. But this extra time gave the movie a chance to develop the characters that we have grown to love in a way that we haven’t seen before, and it’s here that The Inbetweeners shines.
The Inbetweeners’ greatest asset has always been its characters. The reason it hits young males so well is that we can empathise with them. There is a bit of Will/Simon/Jay/Neil in all of us, and their exploits hit a sensitive spot of awkwardness and insecurity which almost everyone goes through as they grow up. The characters have been taken out of their natural environment (school) in the movie, another reason for the lighter humour, but it also gives the characters a chance to discover new things about themselves. More than anything, The Inbetweeners Movie is a comedy-drama, and that is what makes it so good.
I sometimes hear The Inbetweeners accused of sexism. I don’t think that’s true. Sure, the four often act in slightly misogynistic ways, as they take humour from how all too many teenage boys sadly act. But the this behaviour is never rewarded. And this is never more clear than in the movie, where the four – originally seeking lots and lots of sex – are continually punished for their attitudes. They’re only rewarded when they drop their act and start seeing girls as fully equal human beings, worthy of mutual respect. Essentially, The Inbetweeners grow up.
The introduction of four new female characters gives a sense that the movie is a separate entity to the TV series, but there’s enough carry-over to keep it feeling like The Inbetweeners. As the new girls get to know the guys, we are treated to some sad, empathetic and in many ways quite touching character growth. Neil doesn’t change much, but we see the sweet side of Jay that we have only seen glimpses of, Simon battles to get over Carly, and Will, in particular, gains a depth and humanity that we have never seen from The Inbetweeners. It’s these moments that keep the comedy from getting thin, and keep you invested right to the end.
But, ah, the end. It’s kind of cheesy, not totally convincing, and doesn’t really provide a sense of closure for The Inbetweeners as a series. Sure, as a standalone product, the ending is fine. But the ending to the movie still feels like part of a continuing story to me. Perhaps this was to leave room for a sequel, but it was made clear that the characters will soon be going their separate ways, and bar a brief conversation between Simon and Jay none of the characters deal with this emotionally. It’s a shame, because it left a movie that was otherwise well fleshed out and all-too-human feeling a little cheesy and empty.
The Inbetweeners isn’t for everyone. To some, the humour will be a bit silly and the characters might not be relatable to anyone outside its target demographic. If you’re unsure, watch the show first. But for fans, The Inbetweeners is a funny and human movie about male adolescence that’s enjoyable throughout, even if it didn’t provide the closure it should have.
