Kings (2007)

Simply Perfect

Powerful

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

An excellent movie and very unusual in that it is almost entirely 'as gaeilge'. Colm Meaney is the most recognizable actor involved, well for non Irish people he will be anyway, but the supporting cast is equally strong.Having lived in England for a while in the 1990's myself I could readily identify with the constant nagging doubts as to whether they could make a go of it back home or not - if only they had the courage to give it a try.This movie is obviously intensely 'Irish' but it's message could apply to any foreigners anywhere.

Kings is a movie which could have been set in practically any large metropolis on earth to where people migrate in search of a better life. The main characters could have been Russians, Poles, Brazilians, Chinese or any other nationality which is familiar with the phenomenon of mass emigration. In this instance however, the protagonists are Irishmen who left their native Connemara over 30 years previous to seek their fortune amidst the bright lights of London, whilst always retaining the intention of returning home in triumph.However, like many of the hundreds of thousands who made the same journey, life did not work out as they had planned and a number of the group have seemingly fallen through life's cracks and would appear to now exist beyond the pale of civil society. They are of the generation of Irish immigration to the UK, many of whom would have encountered a degree of anti-Irish prejudice in Thatcher's Britain and would have borne the brunt of English reaction to the IRA's bombing campaigns of the 70s and 80s. As a result, it is clear that they have retained an otherness and a dislocation from their surroundings which means they can never call England home.However the Ireland that they left, the one which their nostalgic notions still visualise, is also a changed, and indeed quite possibly foreign place. They are effectively men without a home and can seemingly deal with this fact only through immersion in drink and dysfunctionality. Women do not appear to any great extent, possibly because these men would appear to have never fully left adolescence behind. They inhabit the brutal world of the navvy, a quasi military existence eked out on the building sites and motorways of England, where the comradeship of mates is valued above all else, and where to break away from the group is viewed as being tantamount to treason. Indeed, this very issue is a major cause of tension between a number of the characters.Kings, both as a study of the world of the universal emigrant, as well as of the immigrant that he or she subsequently becomes, is of great relevance to our 21st century existence. As a study of the human condition, it succeeds in capturing the disillusionment felt by all those, regardless of race or nationality, who may believe that they have wasted their existence. How ironic indeed, that the first Irish language feature is also quite possibly, the most universally accessible Irish feature to date with regard to the treatment of its subject matter.Highly recommended.

Bigtraveller (sic) sounds like a big idiot....Kings Abu ! Whenever I see Colm Meaney in anything, I get a warm, fuzzy feeling. It may be the Irish in me coming out -- Meaney was born in Dublin, Ireland -- but it's more likely a residue of his role as Chief Miles O'Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He instantly came across as dignified yet combustible. If he'd been born 50 years earlier, he would have been an ideal supporting character in a ton of classic Hollywood movies.Eventually I discovered some of his earlier work (The Commitments and The Snapper, to name two good ones) and grew to appreciate his rich dramatic abilities. These dramatic abilities are on full display in Kings. The Film was nominated for a record 14 nominations in the IFTAS. Meaney for best supporting actor. Kicks picked up 5, The film which has been submitted by Ireland as their official entrant in the race for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, according to Variety. Kings is based on the play The Kings of Kilburn Road by Irish playwright Jimmy Murphy; multi award winning industry vet Tom Collins wrote the script and produced and directed. The premise is that six men left Ireland for London in search of their fortune. Thirty years have passed with none of their dreams being realized, a point driven home when one of the group dies and the others reunite for his wake. Favourably reviewing the film earlier this year, Jay Weissberg of Variety wrote: "Though unable to completely shed its theatrical origins, Tom Collins' Kings offers a trenchant look at the recent Irish immigrant experience." Weissberg noted that the film is the first bilingual picture produced in Ireland, with the cast speaking a mixture of Irish Gaelic and English.The film had its first public screening at TIFF on Wednesday night; it plays again on Friday morning, September 14. Kings is also scheduled to screen at the Director's Guild of America Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday, September 28, as part of the Directors Finders Series 2007. The latter screening is intended as a showcase for American distributors.Since then it has had a successful theatrical release in the USA and picked up more awards.

It is possible that the major narrative of the twenty-first century will be that of immigration. With transnational movement becoming ever more common, the distances between us shrink both geographically and socially as every immigrant has a compelling individual story to share. Kings is the fertile ground where six of these stories take root, grow and intertwine. It is the first major bilingual (Irish Gaelic and English) Irish production.In the seventies, six ambitious and energetic young men – friends and relatives – left Ireland for London with an eye to making their fortunes and eventually returning home in a blaze of glory. Like so many before them, they found work in the construction industry, toiling to build the very cities that often remained cold and unwelcoming to them. When we meet the men, it is nearly thirty years after their arrival, and one of them has died under terrible circumstances.It is a deeply held tradition that they hold a wake for the passing of their friend, named Jackie. What makes this occasion even more tearful is that the friends haven't followed the path they originally had set out for themselves. They have not enjoyed the same fortunes or even returned to Ireland victoriously as planned. When they finally meet to honour Jackie, drink and sadness make it inevitable that some men will take up the grievances and disappointments of the past, all the while maintaining the illusion that they have a future. In tragic situations like these, nostalgia is particularly far from the cold, hard truth.In addition to sketching a fine sense of place, director Tom Collins elicits remarkable performances from each member of his strong cast, particularly the great Colm Meaney as Joe, a man who left behind his old Irish life for good, but at a heavy cost. These skillful actors capture all the complex and heart-rending subtleties of the immigrant experience. Through the bonds and misfires of male friendship, Kings sympathetically portrays a circle who never actually leave their homeland in either custom or commitment.Jane Schoettle