Garage

This is a good small-ish budget movie from Ireland that I saw screened at a film festival, okay really it was a little screening of a few movies from Europe at a small pub at university. There is some good dark comedy here as well as some very interesting and well done cinematography.

The story focuses on a guy who works at a gas station who ends up falling into a dire situation and needs to get out. He is a very lonely man with seemingly no friends and no real family.

The only other people around him don't seem to like or respect him and are even just mean to him.

I would recommend Garage even though at times it seems to drag and the plot is a little bit thin. Very interesting with some good shots and a decent performance by the lead, Shortt.

Garage is a strange film, good but strange, its one of those films that can hold your attention despite nothing much really happening. It focuses on Josie, played by Pat Shortt, a garage attendant who isn't the shiniest tool in the box, he's harmless enough but his naivety means he is the butt of jokes and lives a very lonely existence. The town is small and everyone knows everyone and with no real friends Josie grasps at any interaction from talking to the local horse, his fleeting chats to long distance lorry driver Dan and to the blokes in the pub despite the fact they are obviously horrible to him. But it's when he gets David as his new young assistant at the garage that things start to change. Saddled with his own problems, adolescence, alienation, isolation and growing pains, David and Josie strike up a friendship, David thinks Josie is brilliant as he supplies him with beers after work and for Josie it's just someone to talk with but the seemingly harmless relationship starts to take a darker turn. With a script that is at times equal in its ability to make you laugh and feel uncomfortable the film is one which will not sit easy with some audiences, ultimately its bleakness may be a little too much for some. That said all the performances are great and while showing how the simple life can be complicated it also shows how beautiful the country Ireland is, but it's really all about the crippling loneliness that can affect us as humans and Shortt's mannerisms and portrayal are startling and in this respect it really is his film. Add to this the subtlety and calmingly paced direction and you have a gem of a movie that leaves a bitter but brilliant taste.

Josie has been assigned the roles in life of pumping petrol and being the village idiot. He qualifies for the former role by being loyal to his boss, diligent about his work tasks, and friendly to the customers. He qualifies for the latter role because of some sort of mild mental disability that makes him slow to process ideas and not too good at standing up for himself. In fact he's not that stupid - one gets the impression that he was a slow child whom people got into the habit of talking down to, but that he understands more than other people acknowledge or that he even acknowledges himself.

People like Josie are litmus tests for distinguishing bullies from people who are fundamentally decent. The bullies, both teenagers and adults, treat him as if he doesn't even understand the cruel remarks they direct towards him. The people of conscience don't mock him because they know he can't respond in kind, and they recognise that he is capable of being hurt. However their kindness can only go so far: they can't engage with Josie as equals, they can't talk to him about relationships or children or careers, and the weather and the news of the town provide only a minute or two of conversational material.

Even more uncomfortable to watch than his treatment by the bullies is the use people make of him as a confidant of last resort. They unburden their hearts to him in the assumption that he has nothing better to do than listen to them, and expecting from him the kind of unconditional sympathy one would get from a pet dog. There is no reciprocation, nobody asks him how he is getting on, so Josie's unhappiness remains unarticulated beneath the conventional cheeriness that he presents to the world and the world expects of him.

The action of this slow moving film can be said to be driven by the intrusions of the wider world into a rural community. Josie's livelihood is threatened by economic development, and his role as the village idiot is threatened, if that's an appropriate word, by the dilution of the community with "blow ins". Being a village idiot is a cruel and marginal existence for Josie, but it does mean that when he takes a wrong turn, people have a ready explanation for his actions, and can be quite tactful and kind in nudging him back in the right direction. When the village fills up with more and more people who haven't known Josie since birth, his behaviour is in danger of being interpreted in a different way.

Garage is Lenny Abrahamson's 2007, award winning, (Prix Art et Essai) Irish drama, starring Pat Shortt. Shortt plays Josie, a simple, tragic character, that lives in and runs the garage in a Tipperary backwater, owned by his former schoolmate, Mr. Gallagher. His life changes over the course of one Summer, when Gallagher introduces him to a boy named David, his new workmate, and a flawed relationship begins to develop. The acting is the most realistic I've ever seen. Every character in this film is taken straight from real life. They might be fictional characters, but each and every one of them exist in villages and towns throughout Ireland. Josie might seem precious and quaint, but there are thousands out there exactly like him. Each role is played to almost frightening accuracy. The Garda, played by Denis Conway, was so real in his attitude and all his dialogue, that it sent chills up my spine. It was acted in an unnaturally close manner to that of a real Garda. The plot doesn't really go very far. It starts in much the same place as it finishes. Although, perhaps it finishes more poignantly than it starts, the poignancy lies in the character of Josie himself and is present throughout the film. Peter Robertson, the Director of Photography, did a superb job. The cinematography is excellent. It's all perfectly framed and captures a certain beauty of location, without losing any realism. Living in a similar location to where this was filmed, I can personally vouch for the accuracy of every aspect of this film. It's amazing. That, funnily enough, was my main reason for disliking this film. I watch films to escape from that sad reality, and it really isn't all that pleasant to have such a close to the bone film in front of your eyes. That was also why I hated Pat Shortt's comedy series, Killinascully. Indeed there are quite a few actors from Killinascully in Garage. People from my area (mainly tractor driving hicks) see things like Killinascully and take them as an instruction manual for life, rather than a comedy series mocking them. So, the main strength of this film, it's realism, is also, for me, it's greatest weakness. I really must congratulate the director on his accuracy, which was outstanding but not appealing to me. I'd say, if you want to know what rural Ireland is really like, watch this. If you live there, just go outside. Or preferably don't. I would recommend seeing this if just for seeing Pat Shortt in a non comedic role. It's a hugely interesting film that deserves to be taken very seriously. I just didn't find it a pleasure to watch. I'm giving it a 6 out of 10, but I'm certain it deserves more.

Josie works in a garage in a small town. He mans the gas pumps, sells the oils and the magazines to the travelers. Only, the town is so small and the road is so little traveled that he hardly has anything to do. Josie has also lived in this town all his life and has worked in this same garage for almost just as long. When his boss asks him to take on the weekends as well he is up for the task - and when his boss offers to send a kid as a helping hand he accepts that kid too. All in all, Josie is a very easy guy that takes the world for what it is. Too bad the world does not fully understand that.

Although somewhat predictable this film is a rather interesting one. The way the actors play out their roles make up for a glimpse of the grim reality people like Josie live in. All he wants is do good, all he gets is evil. The message is clear from the very start of the film but never starts to bore too much. This is purely due to the way the different characters get together and depict the pretty little village the film plays in - the message fits the persons and the town perfectly. When the ending comes it is dark and dreary, but fitting and only logical.

9 out of 10 good people making bad choices