Black Irish

"Black Irish" is a great film because it has an affection for its setting and its characters. Despite having some tough subject material, it left me with a somewhat warm and fuzzy feeling.

Normally when writing a review, it is customary to give a short synopsis of the plot to let readers know if it is a film that they would be interested in seeing. But "Black Irish" isn't that kind of movie. It's all about the characters, the McKay family. The McKay's aren't doing very well. In fact, their family is more or less in shambles. Katie (Emily VanCamp) is pregnant and unmarried, which causes much friction between her and her mother Margret (Melissa Leo). Terry (Tom Guiry) is a violent, out-of-control menace who is about to end up in prison, or dead, which ever comes first. Desmond (Brendan Gleeson) is struggling to earn enough money for his family while drowning his sorrows in alcohol (one of which being a tragic secret). Margret is trying to save face by believing this family is "normal," which it is not. Caught in the middle of it all is Cole (Michael Angarano), who's merely trying to stay afloat.

Therein lies its problem. Movies that sacrifice plot for characters are not bad, provided that its characters are interesting enough and portrayed with good performances (which "Black Irish" is filled with). But Brad Gann doesn't see his movie that way (which is kind of surprising, seeing as he wrote and directed it). It seems as if he made the film to have some underlying story or theme to connect the stories (other than the fact that all of the principal characters are related). Problem is, there isn't any.

Not that this makes "Black Irish" a bad film. It's actually very good. Credit goes to Gann for creating a great sense of atmosphere, and knowing the meaning of the word "subtlety," and how to use it. Nothing is heavy-handed like a sledgehammer as in mainstream films, yet it's not infinitesimally subtle like some of those intellectual films on the opposite end of the spectrum. "Black Irish" is smack dab in the middle.

The performances are great all around. The best performances go to Michael Angarano and Brendan Gleeson. Angarano is perfect as the conflicted, young man who is our window into the McKay family. The subtlety in his performance matches perfectly with Gann's approach. Cole is our window into what's left of the McKay family. Angarano plays Cole not as a film character, but as a normal kid. It's not easy to do, and because (when done well) it is so like real life, the performances often go unrecognized. Brendan Gleeson is great, too. He shows more dramatic skill than he's been able to in other, more mainstream roles. Desmond is a man who has lost everything, but is trying to do what he can, even if that means sinking to levels that are just tragic. The scenes he shares with Angarano are some of the film's best; his discussions about the birds and the bees are laugh-out-loud hilarious (which is especially surprising since this is not a comedy). The other actors are great as well, especially Tom Guiry as the "out-of-control" Terry, whom everyone seems to have given up on. This is interesting because while this hurts Terry (but doesn't show this to anyone), he doesn't know how to stop his downward spiral. You know the mark of a talented actor if they can create a good performance out of an undeveloped character, which is the case with the other members of the family (minus Cole and Desmond), if only slightly.

"Black Irish" is a great film to watch, and it's a shame that it didn't get a wider distribution, because it's really a great movie. Imperfect, but still well worth a watch.

My rating: PG-13 for some language and a scene of brief violence.

What makes "Black Irish" specially valuable is the quality of the protagonist, Cole McKay. He embodies a wonderfully believable, realistic, and valuable example of virtue.

Popular psychomythology tells us that all teenagers are a mess; as even Anna Freud claimed: "to be normal during the adolescent period is by itself abnormal". The wholly credible figure of Cole McKay put the lie to this claim. He's a person with solid common sense who respects his family and community, who knows the difference between right and wrong -- and is willing to back up his knowledge up with hard, mature decisions.

Studies show that 80% of American adolescents experience "generally positive moods and harmonious relations with their parents and peers" (see: D. Offer et alii, "Adolescent and Family Health" 2003). That's fact. That's Cole McKay who's factually & intelligently willing to fight for and to try to keep constructing this harmony with tough love for his messed-up, bad-seed brother, respect for his ambiguous mother, insightful care for his kind sister and, specially, for his wounded, Vietnam-veteran dad. Who's almost lost the best things he's ever achieved in his life. But not his son. Who binds the family with a love that releases, harmonizes, and illuminates those nearest and dearest to him.

The poetry of baseball is the key to Cole's strength. Why? The game's coherence anchors his moral values; as Bill Veek once said: "Baseball is an island of surety in a changing world." And, for Cole, it provides that energy of decency which love of the game can still provide.

I thought for sure that Black Irish was going to be like Southie packed with crime. Turns out this movie goes for a deeper more troubling look at turmoil within in a family. That's what made this one so good. You've got the good brother who is a baseball star who has to live in the shadow of what his no good brother does as a low level street punk. The teenage sister gets knocked up bringing more shame to the family. The father is a tortured man down on his luck with a history of failure. The mother is the bread winner trying to hold the family together. All in all it's not an uplifting movie to watch. It does have heart and great acting. A gem of a movie to see.

BLACK IRISH is one of those little Independent films that manage to give more to the audience than the extreme constrictions of time and budget would suggest. Writer/director Brad Gunn (his first film) manages to tell a story about an Irish family from South Boston that is sincere, realistic, poignant, and profound, and though he worked with a small budget and a shooting schedule of 22 days, he has produced a fine little gem of a film.

The McKay family has problems: father Desmond (Brendan Glesson) lacks work and spends most of his time drinking beer and watching baseball on TV, having been a promising baseball player as a youngster but nipped by the Vietnam War into glum lethargy; mother Margaret (Melissa Leo) resents the shadow of the man she married and works as a social worker to support her family; daughter Kathleen (Emily VanKamp) is pregnant, unwed, and when denied the choice of abortion by her mother's strong Catholicism is determined to have the child by herself, giving it the loving home she feels she has been denied; son Terry (Tom Guiry) is a tortured delinquent who is a gang member and always in conflict with the law; and youngest son Cole (the excellent young 20-year-old Michael Angarano of 'One Last Thing', 'Man in the Chair', 'Snow Angels', 'Lords of Dogtown', 'Seabiscuit', etc) is conflicted by wanting to be a priest versus wanting to be a professional baseball player - he is the good kid and the last hope of his parents.

Terry tricks Cole into accompanying a house break-in and the trouble begins. The financial crisis at home drives Cole to get a job in a restaurant, and drives Desmond to menial work shining shoes. The family will support Kathleen's pregnancy, but that strips the income to the point that Cole must leave his Catholic school to be in public school, and while that seems to dash his hopes for a career in baseball, the coach at his public school (Finn Curtin) acknowledges Cole's talent and promises a future. Terry's lifestyle as a hoodlum presents increasing problems and at one point Cole gathers the courage to confront Terry during a robbery plot at Cole's work place and Terry is seriously wounded. We discover a hidden fact about Desmond that explains some of his sociopath behavior to his family and it is this discovery, coinciding with Terry's gunshot injury and Kathleen's tough life as an unwed working pregnant girl, that pulls the family unit back together.

If the plot sound like soap opera rest assured it is not. This is an intensely realistic examination of a fragile Irish Catholic family striving to makes sense of a world that is increasingly chaotic. All of the actors are excellent, but the extraordinary sensitivity and skill of young Michael Angarano make this a film to cherish. And Brad Gann is assuredly a talent to watch! Very highly recommended. Grady Harp

What an excellent movie. With surprises all around. It would have been so very easy to make this exactly what was expected of it - a mediocre Indie Drama about a typical dysfunctional American family, with this one happening to be Irish and from Southie. What we get instead is one that fell through the cracks, as it went right to DVD. The critics and distributors missed this one. Had someone besides the author believed in it and packaged it right - it would have been a hit. It is well written, well acted, with several unexpected turns toward the Light - by multiple characters facing their own dilemma. The kind of differences that separate the bland from the sublime. I'm speaking of subtleties not the spectacular. So if you go in looking for the spectacular - you'll miss the supernatural. Which is almost always, subtle. It even manages a happy ending, which is tricky at best with a story like this. Well done all.

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