Due sulla strada - The Van

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")

"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.

Booker prize winner Roddy Doyle , who started life as a school teacher in a depressed neighbourhood in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, offers us a vivid yet humorous slice of life in Dublin at a pivotal time in contemporary Irish history. He tells this story from the perspective of down trodden families living in a depressed yet resilient neighbourhood. What is truly brilliant about this film is not just the hilarious storyline or the magical performances but how it captures the moment when Ireland as a nation got back on its feet and began to embrace Europe and world with renewed confidence. The story is set during the monumental moments of the European Football Championships of 1988, EURO'88 , when the Irish soccer team surprised Europe, and not least the Irish, with their success. It has been said that this event and the continued success of the Irish soccer team in Italia 90 sparked a renewed confidence within Ireland which greatly contributed to the success of the Irish economy in recent years, now known as the Celtic Tiger. The Barrytown trilogy written by Doyle has given us 3 memorable film adaptations in 'The Commitments'; 'The Snapper' and now this the final episode 'The Van'. Roddy Doyle went on to win the Booker prize for 'Paddy Clarke , ha, ha, ha' and is one of the foremost novelists active in Ireland today. His comedy and dialogue use the often thick Dublin working class dialect, which add to the lyrical nature of the scenes. Most of the characters are in turmoil due to their circumstances and the comedy lies in their posturing with each other in a dead-pan, black comedy.

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.

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.