I'm a bit late to the party with this one, but I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed Clear History, an HBO production that went out on Sky Atlantic last week. But then I would enjoy it. I've pretty much enjoyed every comedy Larry David has been involved in from Seinfeld to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Note to self - must hunt down his not-well-received pre-Curb debut movie Sour Grapes.
Despite a title that made the programme sound as if it was about some kind of naughty computer geek (I suspect in the future a lot of people's final words may well be "clear history"), this movie-length comedy features David doing proper acting as hairy hippy Nathan Flomm, a whizz-kid marketing guru who quits his job and falls out with his boss Will Haney (Mad Man Jon Hamm) only to see the value of his shares - now cashed in - rocket when the company's electric car, the Howard, revolutionises motoring.
Flomm, now a humiliated laughing stock and a synonym for bad investments, decides to reinvent himself as a bit of a bum living in the idyllic Martha's Vineyard. Cut to ten years later and his idyll is disrupted when Will, now a billionaire, buys a local mansion. Flomm, furious, plans his revenge with the help of a group of the town's oddballs including an almost unrecognisable Michael "Batman" Keaton.
The plot gets preposterous at times but there is plenty to enjoy here. For lovers of Curb, this is Larry-lite, with only a few scenes showing him saying the Larry-ish unsayable. He is obsessed with plug sockets being too low and wants to produce a "pee-tube" so that drivers can urinate without pulling over. The highlight is a dispute in the local cafe when he suggests putting cutlery on a napkin because it is more hygienic than putting it on the table. There are plenty of lines to cherish. On hearing that Will wants to call the new car the Howard, Flomm disapproves and says "it's like naming a restaurant Hepatitis".
There is also much pleasure to be had from the supporting cast, which includes a few familiar Curb faces - JB Smoove and Philip Baker Hall in particular. Director Greg Mottola helmed Superbad so knows how to make a comedy, though I gather this used Curb's improvised style rather than a rigid script. This makes for some gently funny scenes at times where a script might have speeded things up, but at movie length the story has room to breathe. Like Curb, Clear History relies on some pretty unlikely coincidences to keep the drama moving. Will reveals he has been scouring the globe looking for Flomm at precisely the moment Flomm is behind him.
Hamm's billionaire Will never needs to work again and nor, presumably, does Larry David, thanks to the global success of Seinfeld, but I'm glad he does. Hopefully this will still be knocking around Sky's Catch-Up service for a while. Maybe not as classy as the brilliant comic cringefest of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but a pleasant way to pass the time while we wait for the next series.
