Full Review

They said it couldn't be done, and now that they've done it, they still haven't really done it.

We're talking about "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" (Picturehouse), which turns out to be a fitfully amusing saga of a movie crew attempting to film British pastor Laurence Sterne's novel, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman." The 1767 nine-volume work has always been considered unfilmable because of its wildly nonlinear structure.

Director Michael Winterbottom (working from a script by Martin Hardy) offers a good chunk of the story, showing Tristram (Steve Coogan) speaking to the camera about the circumstances of his own birth, under the guidance of his stubbornly progressive father (also Coogan). The latter refuses a midwife, insisting on a "modern" doctor who attempts to bring forth the baby with forceps. And there's also Uncle Toby (Bob Brydon), significantly injured in an unmentionable area during a battle years before.

Winterbottom devotes equal time to the off-camera travails of lead actors Coogan and Brydon, both ostensibly "playing" themselves, who have an ongoing rivalry about whose part is bigger (and about who does the better Al Pacino imitation), while Coogan juggles a girlfriend (Kelly MacDonald) who's just given birth, and a flirtation with a pretty production runner (Naomie Harries). Coogan's also staving off a reporter who has been promised an interview to keep the scribe from spilling the beans about yet another of Coogan's indiscretions.

A bevy of solid (mostly English) actors round out the cast. There's Jeremy Northam as the movie-within-the-movie's harried director; Keeley Hawes as Tristram's mother and herself; and Gillian Anderson playing herself, an enthusiastic last-minute hire as the Widow Wadman. All of them, together with such stalwarts as Stephen Fry, Shirley Henderson and Roger Allam lend appeal to an offbeat film somewhat reminiscent, in its contemporary scenes, of the HBO series "Extras," which concerned the exploits of bit players on various movie sets.

The digitally shot film has a somewhat rough look to it -- grainy and not particularly colorful even in its period scenes -- but its grittiness is no doubt intentional.

Someday, "Tristram Shandy" may have cult status, for the film is certainly unusual, not to mention clever, in many ways. But this unevenly satiric film won't appeal to every taste. On the other hand, if you enjoy British humor, and can overlook some 18th-century bawdiness, this could be your cup of tea.

The film contains an overall bawdy tone, rough language and some profanity, crude expressions, sexual situations and much innuendo, unrelated partial and rear nudity, brief full frontal child nudity including diaper changing and a crude sight gag, a graphic childbirth scene, a permissive view of a premarital affair and parenting, adultery, and a visual joke involving a womb. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

The following movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.