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Film Description
John Cleese's ultra-meticulous teacher attempts to reach a head teacher's conference where he, as it's new president, is delivering the keynote speech. Fate and the entire universe seem to be conspiring against him, as what should have been a routine journey becomes a comic nightmare of epic proportions. Cleese at his hysterical best.
Brian Stimpson (Cleese) is a middle-aged comprehensive school headteacher and a stickler for punctuality. Whilst on his way to a conference in Norwich, a misunderstand... more >
Brian Stimpson (Cleese) is a middle-aged comprehensive school headteacher and a stickler for punctuality. Whilst on his way to a conference in Norwich, a misunderstanding (caused by different meanings of the word "right" - we've all been there) sees him boarding the wrong train, and sets in motion a disastrous maelstrom of one farcical mishap after another.
Stimpson is essentially Basil Fawlty Mk II, which in a way is both Clockwise's strength and its weakness. Yet, as equally problematic as the two characters' similarities are the differences between them. Fawlty makes the viewer cringe by being fundamentally just as awful as the nitwits against which he rails, whereas Stimpson's haplessness becomes tiresome and increasingly unbearable to watch. Fawlty was often the architect of his own downfall; Stimpson's situation more often than not conspires against him through little fault of his own. Equally, Fawlty enjoyed the occasional pyrrhic victory, even if it inevitabl y turned sour afterwards. Nothing ever seems to go right for Stimpson. One can sympathise with him, but only to an extent as his situation is hopeless and one is as resigned as he must be to the futility of it all.
The stuffy, awkwardly anachronistic Englishness of Fawlty gave rise to one of the truly great creations of modern-day comedy - that much cannot be denied. Nonetheless, no such character has totally boundless comic permeatations. Maybe the problem lies with Cleese's acting limitations, but by too closely re-creating Fawlty (intentionally or not), Clockwise ultimately suffers as a result. < less
