The Boys & Girl from County Clare (2005)

the audience applauded

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a very poorly paced, acted, and directed movie that, with a little imagination, could have delivered a decent story. The plot, such that it is, centres around two brothers from County Clare that parted in anger twenty years before the movie's setting at an Irish music festival. They meet as competitors, having engaged in some ham-fisted attempts to derail each other's arrival in time for registration, and quickly revisit the reasons for their acrimony. The plot develops so predictably from then on that the side stories are more interesting - but only marginally.The director curiously adheres to some stereotypes of Irish people and culture (and Liverpudlians' too), with plenty of drinking, cursing, vomiting, and general idiocy; however, he gets some very obvious cultural markers wrong - single women in pubs (the movie is set in the 1960s, when Ireland was far from its current liberal self), a man ordering wine in a pub (utterly unheard of back then!), and some non-Irish outsiders going totally unnoticed. Worse than this, however, is his unwillingness to go anywhere unconventional or unpredictable: characters are as flimsy as the script, the pace dull and boring, and even the music is mediocre at best. It tells a dull story competently; but nothing more. Colm Meaney meanders through the movie in third gear, while Andrea Corr makes a tolerable debut. Patrick Bergin and Frank Kelly have cameos that they won't add to their resumes. All in all, a poor movie that wastes what little it had going for it. Do yourself a favor and rent "The Field" instead.

A cutesy make ya feel good movie I enjoyed it just for the light entertainment no need to think point of view. The real downer for me - and this is because I play music - is that none of the musicians in this movie could play anything and it was painfully obvious. Most of them didn't even move their fingers on the fingerboards. I had expected and watched this movie to see some decent Irish musicians playing as the backdrop for the movie and there was none. How much more could it have cost the movie makers to have had some real musicians in here ? They would have loved the exposure and it would have been a win win situation.

I had just finished watching a movie and I was planning either to write about it or to go to sleep once and for all. But then, a beautiful music (got to thank Fiachra Trench for that) arrived to my ears. Never mind, I was about to get up when I saw this girl, this lady; this beautiful woman. I recognized her from somewhere and in less than a minute I remembered her. Andrea Corr, the singer of The Corrs (a group that ironically Fiachra Trench helps musically) and now actress for the third time. She has a trapping screen presence; she's gorgeous and full of joy.The story came next, and it involved what I most love in the whole world: music. But it is not that typical music contest story. There's music all along, and a contest too; but first time screenwriter Nicholas Adams involved another things: love, family and feelings. It's the most charming script, really, in the way it introduces the film's characters, one by one and in the way it deceives us keeping the most predictable secrets hidden until the right moments.We first meet Jimmy (a very acceptable Colm Meaney), playing with his music band. He has many gifted musicians under his direction, including Teddy (an excellent young actor named Shaun Evans), who makes Jimmy because he is fond of modern music and plays that all the time. Then an old man gets up from a bed and walks a little bit. This is John Joe (Bernard Hill, that captain from Titanic now in top form), who lives, we quickly understand, for music. His band is led by Maisie (Charlotte Bradley) in the piano, and Anne, (the character played by Andrea Corr) who has a gift for the violin.Thinking in other movies of this type, the music movies that bring up past moments for the people involved in the contest and other things like that, "The fighting temptations" came to mind. Mainly because it starred Beyoncé Knowles, in what was a vehicle for her, because she promoted her songs and the camera focused her intentionally and constantly. Here, Andrea Corr is another stunning actress inside the ensemble, and if you don't know who she is, you'll enjoy her brilliant portrayal of a messed up teenager (she played a teenage girl with 29 years) who needs someone that guides her way.In comparison with "The fighting temptations", the ending here is different. It is what I was talking about Nicholas Adams' script, very sympathetic. Then the characters are real and we understand them. For example, John Joe says that Jimmy has no rhythm and when we see Jimmy playing alongside his band, his feet are totally out of time. Real are also the characters' personalities, that stick to them in all of their actions. So we laugh because of how stupid some characters are and the opportunities they miss because of the things they do. We get moved in the beautiful love story because we understand life can be like that sometimes and because the chemistry between the actors in undeniable.John Irvin directed passionately and correctly a movie that's for anyone. Anyone who likes music, anyone who likes love, anyone who appreciates family and I forgot, the ending...Probably the most awkwardly pleasant ending I've witnessed in a long time. You'll see what I'm talking about.

The Boys from County Clare is a delightful comedy with many dark, dramatic overtones. Two brothers, estranged for years, are competing in a ceili (Irish dance music) band competition. Each will stop at nothing to prevent the other from winning, or even entering, the competition. We do not know the cause of the rift but it soon becomes clear that other characters are involved in it. It kept me guessing: sometimes right and sometimes wrong. As time passes, we learn more about the dark secrets of these characters and how they work things out.If you like Irish music, then you have one more thing to love about this film; it is full of that music. The cast was well chosen both for appearance and acting abilities. Whether or not they really are, they do appear to be playing the music. The characters appear to be very real and always interesting. There is considerable foul language and drunkenness in the film but it is essential to the understanding of the characters and their ways. There are many beautiful lessons and much pathos but even more humour in the film. Watch for a delightful surprise near the end.