Cowboys & Angels

It's a low-budget film with little in the way of a storyline and includes some diversions that have little bearing on the overall product. All of this would lead you to dismiss it as a lightweight offering. However, one of the main functions of a movie is to capture a sense of time and place and, in this context, Cowboys & Angels succeeds brilliantly. Even though it was made just two years ago, it has already found a unique position in time that viewers can relate to. It is set in my hometown of Limerick at the turn of the millennium as Ireland was moving from being the poorest country in western Europe to one of the wealthiest. Much of this happened to the bemusement of a population which had grown up on unemployment and emigration and now suddenly found itself surrounded by opportunities it had only dreamed of up to then. And along the way, a certain innocence was lost as a bulging generation of baby-boomers (Ireland's birthrate peaked thirty years later than its neighbours)worked its way through the buzz and the heartaches of transformation. In some ways, it resembles growing-up classics like American Graffiti and Rebel Without a Cause but set in a very different time and place. The main character, superbly played by Michael Legge, captures that wide-eyed innocence that the country was going through at the time while the photography picks up the youthful vitality of the city. While, on the surface, it may be an unremarkable tale about an unremarkable place, the ambiance is absolutely spot-on. Cowboys & Angels is perhaps the most representative contemporary feature film to come out of Ireland during the past decade.

I've just watched this film and I' surprised to find it was released in 2003. While watching it (before knowing the release date) I felt I was watching something out of the 1980s. Even though it may be contemporary, this film already has something "aged" about it. Its not exactly hackneyed, but there is something about the young people and the way they talk and act (and what they wear) that feels dated already. What especially struck me were the hairstyles and the clothing, some of the expressions and some of the mock innocence. These feel just too good, to tame, or too "innocent" to be credible in a movie in the 21st Century. The usual moral story, one supposes, and this time around just a bit too heavy-handed for my own personal taste. The stated gay interest or gay angle is very oblique.

Although there is a gay lead in first-time director David Gleeson's "Cowboys and Angels", this is by no means a gay film, rather a touching and heartwarming story of two young men coming-of-age in the heart of Dublin. Rivaling anything that's on the market today in the way of teen films, this rises above any of them with great performances and a fresh look at some old themes. It might be too sweet at times and neatly wrapped but the Irish charm of the characters keeps it afloat throughout.

Michael Legge plays Shane Butler, a geeky 20 year old lad from the suburbs who has just moved to Dublin. While searching for a flat to rent he stumbles upon a fellow classmate from high school, Vincent (Allen Leech), and the two reconnect when they both happen to be looking at the same apartment to rent. They decide to share it and Shane's adventure in the big city begins.

Shane is straight, has a quiet demeanor, and looks like his mom dressed him, while Vincent is more outgoing, dresses and looks funky, oh, and is gay. The two don't quite hit it off at first, but their friendship develops over time and Vincent takes him under his wing, as a friend and partly as a fashion project. Shane falls for a girl named Gemma (Amy Shiels) who works in a nearby burger joint, and it just so happens an old classmate of Vincent's. Shane has a hard time making the connection with her and is envious of her and Vincent's friendship. To make matters worse, Shane finds some drugs in the buildings lobby, he gets caught by the dealer (David Murray), and is then offered a large sum of money to make a run. He takes the offer hoping the money can either buy him a new wardrobe or help put him into art school and get him out of his dead-end job at the civil service department. A subplot involves a coworker named Jerry that is truly touching. In any event, Shane falls into the wrong crowd and friendships are tested, hearts broken, and loved ones lost. But in the end, true friendship endures and you can't help be touched by either one, the cowboy or angel.

Flat-mate wanted: apply within. So begins the sweetest straight-gay friendship in recent memory. Shane is a lost and lonely 20 year-old civil servant from the suburbs; he's adorably hetero and has no sense of style. His new roommate in the big city is Vincent, a hot young fashion student, queer, innately stylish, full of life, surrounded by friends, and able to pick up a hot daddy in ten seconds. For Shane, Vincent unlocks buried artistic dreams and a burning need to embrace the adventure of youth. For Vincent, Shane is...well...he's a makeover project, inside and out. And soon enough, he's in serious trouble. Filled with just enough confidence to make just the wrong move, Shane falls in with two drug-dealing thugs downstairs, and things get dangerous fast. As he spins out of control, Vincent flinches from the monster he's created. But the flat has thin walls, and even at their worst, Shane and Vincent never stop listening for each other. Refreshingly, writer/director David Gleeson's vision of this friendship transcends all that we've come to expect from a gay-straight relationship onscreen. The warmth and youthful optimism that emerge from this duo is positively infectious, and Michael Legge and Allen Leech effortlessly bring to life one of the rarest kinds of love. Gleeson's production is polished and lyrical; like Shane's clothing designs, Cowboys and Angels is colorful, bold and exhilaratingly alive.

Although it sounds like the premise for a formulaic sitcom, Cowboys and Angels turns out to be something entirely different. This big-hearted crowd pleaser, written and directed by David Gleeson, centers on Shane (Michael Legge), a lonely 20-year-old misfit who moves to the big city and takes on a gay roommate, fashion-design student Victor (Allen Leech).

After some queer-eye advice from the popular, outgoing Victor (new haircut, new wardrobe, new attitude), Shane begins to emerge from his shell. But an incidental friendship with the drug dealer who lives downstairs threatens to wreck his life just as it is beginning to come together.

Refreshingly, Cowboys and Angels uses its characters as people, not types, on its way to detailing Shane's gradual coming-of-age. Even with its brief running time, the movie feels slight and padded: The story technically ends 10 minutes before the movie does. But the lack of the expected gay-straight clichés puts you in a forgiving mood, and Gleeson's upbeat, humanist approach takes care of the rest.