While comedy is a bawdy and political form that has the power to get beneath the skin of ideology, here its foolery lessens the film's overall project and impact.
All the organs of his body were working - bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming - all toiling away in solemn foolery.
There is a surfeit of ham acting, rowdy revelry, capering foolery, groaning couplets, slapstick and silliness, but the experience is an energising one and sweetly stirring, too.
