Im fresh home from the cinema, and i felt a strong urge to review this movie. i made an IMDB account just for this!
the camerawork threw me off for about 90 percent of the movie. i didn't understand it at all and constantly tried to keep up. i couldn't focus on the dialogue- because there would be about 30 unnecessary camera angle changes in every shot! this would have worked for a little-dialogue moody film, but certainly not for something that labels itself a comedy. i'll paint this as an example of a scene which just wasn't funny, in, again, a comedy movie. (this scene stuck out in my mind, but certainly wasn't the only wasted potential in this movie. it was littered with this type of thing). Louis is anxious about getting into the hearse, and says hes not. Daniel says he'll have to, and Louis says no. Daniel says they cant just strap the coffin onto the other car. instead of having a shot of the two of them looking at each other, instead of having the actors show ANY kind of emotion- the two just don't care and the next scene is just the coffin strapped onto the car and everybody acting normal and content. what? i was audibly shocked in the cinema. i couldn't believe they could mess up making such a SIMPLE scene funny.
the idea of new york was poorly, poorly executed. the entire movie revolves around the fact that they're going to new york, its Daniels home, they're going to new york. WE ARE NOT SHOWN ANYTHING OF DANIELS LIFE IN NEW YORK! no apartment, no job, no sliver of life in new york was shown. how are we supposed to even pretend that its important to Daniel to go back if we're shown about ten seconds of footage in the whole of america through the entire movie? from the very start it was OBVIOUS he was not coming back. something as simple as five minutes at the start of the movie showing Daniels routine would have worked so well. imagine if we were shown the parallels of life between Daniel and Padraig, them waking up compared, them brushing their teeth compared, them getting dressed and ready to get on the flight compared. we would have actually CARED for them. instead- Daniel is the crap,until the very end, and Padraig is just the dead dude. again, a simple disappointment in terms of execution.
on the topic of characters, they were not developed enough! there was enough backstory, but the way that was introduced was so, so bad. they stuck the backstory in the dialogue, but it was so stiff and short that about 70 percent of what they talked about was their sad past, or sad future. how can you make a comedy out of that? every time a character spoke it felt as if they spoke to themselves only, and they didn't interact with the people around them.
this review is long enough as is, even though i have a hell of a lot more to say. i need to say this positive thing: i loved the story. i absolutely loved it. the wee detour to Mary's boyfriends house way dodgy, but not much else. quite frankly the 6 out of 10 stars are just for the acting and the plot and the scenery in the movie. everything else in this movie is a sad disappointment.
I support Aoife Crehan's career and i think we need more female directors in ireland, but i think it was an awful mistake to have this as her debut full length film. it may be a once off, but it personally just shows me she is an amazing writer, but messy director. had this been directed by peter foott from the young offenders, or edgar wright in the style he directed the cornetto trilogy, i would have NO DOUBT believing this movie would be a 9, or even 10 out of 10 star movie.
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