Cemetery Junction – 2010 | 95 mins | Comedy, Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Successful television comedy writing duo Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant turned their hands to co-writing and directing with this homegrown coming-of-age comedy drama. Written under the working title of The Men at the Pru, Cemetery Junction tells the funny, touching and common story of being trapped in a small town and dreaming of escape. Set in 1970s England, three twenty-something blue-collar friends spend their days joking, drinking, fighting and chasing girls. It would be incorrect to describe Cemetery Junction as a comedy; rather it’s an affectionate and charming nostalgia-tinged drama that rarely strays far from the formulaic.

Set in early 1970s Reading town of Cemetery Junction, apprentice door-to-door insurance salesman Freddie (Christian Cooke) is dreaming of a life of middle-class security, whilst his two lifelong friends approach adulthood differently. Charismatic rebel Bruce (Tom Hughes) is charged with anger due to the break-up of his parents and loveable loser Snork (Jack Doolan) is happy with life the way it is. The gang are forced to make choices that will change their lives forever when Freddie bumps into his old school sweetheart Julie (Felicity Jones), whose smarmy dad (Ralph Fiennes) and fiancé (Matthew Goode) are Freddie’s boss and mentor at the insurance firm. Julie soon makes Freddie question whether there’s more to life than a 9-5 office job.