The warm-hearted parody; the loving spoof; the nimble raillery of the affectionate pastiche: no matter how you phrase it, loyal lampoonery is a tricky thing to pull off. Too respectful and you risk alienating those unfamiliar with the original and boring those in the know. Play too fast and loose with the source material and you end up in a no man's land of fanciful digressions and stretched puns that mean very little to anyone.
Morag Fullerton's adaptation of 1942's peerless North African wartime film noir adventure 'Casablanca' would seem to be fully appraised of the pitfalls of both approaches. But knowing where the man-traps are and avoiding them are two different things, and despite the occasional moment when reverence and whimsy combine to elevate proceedings, 'The Gin Joint Cut' too often falls between stools: too hidebound to offer a new take on the material, and not ultimately inventive enough to be entertainingly tangential.
The agreeable cast of three – in particular Gavin Mitchell, who wisely chooses not to oversell the Humphrey Bogart schtick – do what they can with the material, but are too often shackled with dishing out 'nuggets' about the film's tortuous production – all of which have been pulled wholesale from easily identifiable sources. This might be mildly illuminating for those not versed in Hollywod lore, but for a film that trades on our knowledge of Tinseltown matters, it comes across as a little lazy.
It's a genial hour's entertainment, and there are a smattering of laughs to be had with the trio of likeable, committed performers, but not enough care and craft have been put into the script to make this 'Casablanca' amount to anything more than a hill of half-baked beans.