The Van

The Van, a 1996 Stephen Frears film who would go on to much better things, takes on the ideas of desperate, inglorious situations and scenarios, such as unemployment, and wraps them up into packages ready to be delivered as comedy. There is nothing at all funny about the situation the two leads in the film find themselves in, but there is something distinctly charming about the way in which they deal with it.

While not essentially British, a given thanks to the over emphasis on how wonderful it was for the characters to witness the Irish football team pull back a goal and hold on for a draw against the English, while most of the other matches go unnoticed. However, it is directed by an Englishman and the film does posses rather a few items that were written about in regards to some growing fears and concerns simmering at the time within the British film industry, with particular attention to the comedy genre. If we recall Claire Monk's writings in the late 1990s, we might think of films such as Brassed Off and The Full Monty as being films depicting jobless British males turning to alternate methods of money making to get by; effectively rendering the crisis of post-industrialism (closure of mines and steel mills) as a crisis of masculinity. She also writes about these films transitioning problematic situations into comic solutions. These ideas and scenarios might be applicable to The Van, a film that spins job-loss and perceived men in crisis into a series of jokes and gags; a film that, like said examples, see the leads turn to either an entertainment or cultural supply and demand industry, in which they eventually come to relish.

One of the two leads in The Van is Bimbo (O'Kelly), a man who has lost his job and gets by off of his redundancy money. The other is Larry (Meaney), and between them, they aim to get a portable fast food outlet up and running. Whilst it's not about becoming strippers or brass-band musicians, it is essentially about two men turning to cooking and meal preparation by way of getting by. Its set up; a male panic, followed by a lot of sitting around complete with head scratching before hitting upon an idea to move into what is a form of the cooking industry, sees the two leads adopt a culinary position; something that Monk may have been alluding two when she describes early 1990s 'new men' as having to now share the once sole motherly burdens; this of course includes cooking and meal preparation. Yes, it's a fast-food van but the progressive realisation that the only way to deal with the 'panic' is to do something thought of initially as somewhat unthinkable and hapless, is certainly explored; the last resort, 'you'll never see me doing that/in one of those things' notion is tested before becoming the source of humour. One character refers to burger vans as portable 'food poisoning', before succumbing to working within one later on.

The van of the title acts as both a physical representation for the nucleus of the two leads' study, but also as a cinematic space in which it is able to play out. When we first encounter the van, it is located in a desolate and sorry place; a place that sees its characters struggle to push their way through all the other hazards around it just to catch a glimpse. The van is broken, worn-out and decrepit – it's seen better days. But the van is transformed; it is updated and goes through a process of modernity before, in time, is back up and running and solving the characters' problems. The process the van goes through is similar to that of the main characters, as these beaten and well-worn individuals whom have seen better days suddenly becoming success stories again; garnering a final day in the sun.

But if The Van is supposed to be a comedy, blending in the harsh and realistic working class life of terrace house living; cramped conditions; redundancy and frustrations with one's overall life with what is, I think, supposed to be a 'feel-good' approach; then it's not a terribly funny one. One of the film's stranger scenes applies a very visceral sense of humour whilst exploiting what little knowledge these perceived men in crisis actually know about the kitchen 'space'; that being when Larry scolds himself whilst trying to deep fry fish and fry eggs, with the fat popping and jumping up onto his forehead and hands thus scolding him. It's an odd scene; a scene in which the male is ill-suited to his culinary surroundings, we are invited to laugh before realising that if he doesn't get back in there, give it another crack and get it right then his life will get doubly worse in an instant.

But The Van has charm, although its charm isn't really enough. It doesn't invite us to laugh at two people on the skids as much as it does invite us to marvel and be entertained at the manner in which they refuse to buckle and hit rock-bottom. The film's humour is too wavy, either settling for scenes in which its characters are under the influence of alcohol or instances in which the burger van is mobbed by a sea of customers all shouting and ordering at once which, and granted, I haven't ordered many meals from many burger vans, but I'm smart enough to know, just doesn't happen. However, you might say its inconsistencies and its broad, uneven feel help in adding to its overall charm of two people just trying to get by; and I wouldn't really begrudge anyone for being fond of it for that.

OK, apparently, Colm Meaney (happy birthday, Colm!) is best known for a "Star Trek" role, but I always associate him with his roles in adaptations of Roddy Doyle novels. They are "The Commitments", "The Snapper" and "The Van". The last one casts as a down-on-his-luck Dubliner who with his friend finds a grimy abandoned van and opens it up. While I mostly liked the movie, it did have the problem of showing the Irish drinking and moping about life's travails; is that the only way to stereotype people from the Emerald Isle? But otherwise, I found it a pretty good look at working-class life in Ireland. Once again, Stephen Frears added another accomplishment to his resume, recently continued with "The Queen". I recommend it, and see whether or not you want to get a bite to eat from any random van after watching this.

"The Van" is one of very few novels that have made me laugh out loud, on numerous occasions, whilst reading it. Thus, I feared the movie couldn't possibly live up to the book and I was right.

The characters appear nowhere near as appealing as they do in the book -even the lead characters name has changed from Jimmy to Larry. In fact the Rabbite family has been drastically culled. The dialect can be difficult to catch at times (my wife mistook "World Peace" for "Wolf's p**s" during one pun). The "Living Dead" appear from nowhere and........no, I'm not doing any more comparisons.

If you want a good laugh read the book.

In November 1989, in Ireland, the baker Bimbo (Donal O'Kelly) is fired from his job and he does not feel comfortable with the situation. His best friend Larry (Colm Meaney), who is also unemployed and living with his low welfare with his wife Mary (Caroline Rothwell) and their children, is resigned with his situation and tries to console his friend. But Bimbo is supported by his wife Maggie (Ger Ryan) and decides to buy an abandoned van without engine in a junkyard to open a business of hamburger, French fries and fried codfish and invites Larry to work with him. Soon they have financial success but their friendship is compromised.

"The Van" is a dramatic comedy directed by Stephen Frears that has a funny and exciting beginning and an unpleasant conclusion. The friendship of Larry and Bimbo is beautiful to see and their success is what every viewer expects to see. However, the final twist with the attitude of the big-mouth and envious Larry is disappointing. Maybe the bitter story is more realistic this way but I would prefer a happy ending, valuating friendship and hard work. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Van" ("The Van")

Two Irish men with wives and children find themselves on the dole. One of them buys a large van and turns it into a "chippy." Naturally, he asks his best friend to work there with him. These two approaching-middle-age men have to work incredibly hard, but do have some success at the venture. It doesn't take long, however, for the friendship to get in the way. The one who fronted the money for the van is the boss, and the other one who didn't put up any money to get the small business going is the employee, who eventually becomes bitter at drawing a weekly paycheck from his best friend, who joins a union and begins antagonizing his best friend about labor laws, and whose insecurity in life shows clearly -- after all, the job isn't glamorous by any means, and of course, the reality of it is far removed from his dreams, we should imagine. The tension grows between the two. Set in Ireland during a World Cup Finals competition in soccer, this film gives us an intimate, grungy peek at the everyday realities of the poor in Ireland. It's "grand" to venture forth and set up one's own business and get off the dole, but of course, things are unlikely to run smoothly.