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Yet Grimsby was barely more successful in Britain, where it was generally critically ridiculed; Gaby Hinsliff, writing in the Guardian, said that she was “mildly bored, occasionally repulsed and ultimately chastened.” Even John Prescott attacked it, calling Baron Cohen a “spoilt public schoolboy from the south kicking the north” and, perhaps most damningly, comparing him to George Osborne. They were both, he said, “A couple of posh southerners patronising the north to further their careers.”
One of its few defenders was the Telegraph’s Robbie Collin, who called it “a vital, lavish, venomously profane two fingers up at Benefits Street pity porn and the social division it fosters” and declared “I laughed, winced, gagged, then laughed even more.” Yet even this was not enough to save the picture, which died an ignominious death at the UK box office.
Most of its cast and crew escaped unscathed; Strong has continued to be a highly respected stage and screen actor, Leterrier’s hiring for the Fast and Furious franchise demonstrates no hard feelings from Hollywood and the starring supporting cast – including Wilson – have all gone from strength to strength. And even Baron Cohen, perhaps chastened by the reception, has turned to increasingly demanding non-comic roles, such as his appearance in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Alfonso Cuarón’s forthcoming Apple TV thriller Disclaimer, although he did reprise his Borat character for a Trump-baiting sequel in 2020, which met with similar acclaim to the original.
Nonetheless, Grimsby squats over Baron Cohen’s filmography with suitably elephantine clumsiness. Wilson’s recent comments about her experiences working alongside him may, or may not, chime with others’ opinions of their own time with Baron Cohen on the project. But there can be no doubt that this tasteless, unique and profoundly patronising film will never endear itself to many, massive a__holes or otherwise.
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