The Delinquent Season

I was pleasantly surprised by the new romantic drama,The Delinquent Season. It was not at all what I was expecting, when the mild mannered characters engaged in a scandalous affair I was taken aback. The drama filled plot was entertaining and I was excited to see the characters lives unravel. I am impressed by Cillian Murphy's noteworthy portrayal of a man who discovers he doesn't have his life together. His love interest, Yvonne, played by Catherine Walker has a tough acting challenge battling with emotion of guilt and grief, but I feel she raises to the occasion and I hope to she her in more films. Overall the film, although a little unhurried, had some strong performances and a number of impressive dramatic scenes that make the film remarkable.

Very good description of what are our relationships with our husband, wife, children today. Nobody really lies but nobody really tells the truth. A wife who considers her husband as her houseboy, another one who thinks seriously that she just have to snap her fingers to make the lover she thrown badly come back right away. I like the end of the film because a man has found what he was looking for, may be even without having the consciousness of that, a woman who loves him. Even if they are coming from very different backgrounds, he knows he is beloved. the actors are all very good. Too bad that this film had only a limited distribution. Bravo to the Irish cinema, and especially to Cillian Murphy who is not afraid to take risks when he chooses a character to play.

In a time when movies often don't fully portray the aftermath of betrayal, I felt this movie reminded me what I seem to have been indifferent to, dare I say forgotten. The main thing I think this film tries to do, is provoke its' audience to rethink the aftermath of betrayal. Nowadays, the whole relationship institution has dissolved into nothing substantial. Whilst emphasizing the collapse of loyalty between the partners and to the marriage itself, the movie has awakened the inevitable consequence of each disloyal act we partake in, when in a relationship.

The actors were fantastic and Cillian Murphy's performance definitely stood out. It's certainly a refreshing change to see him portray a character that's preserving a tiny portion of his own nature, so it seems.

I must say though, at first, I thought the movie was rather boring during the first twenty minutes. Only then did I realize that as boring as it was to watch the characters day to day life, it must be dreadful to actually live as such, thus explaining, and ultimately leading, to the acts of infidelity.

An intense mix of romance and suspense, The Delinquent Season provides a story that displays marriages gone terribly wrong. The director Mark O'Rowe gives a story about two Irish couples who are close friends, having dinners with each other and coordinating playdates between their children. The movie escalates when the two couples begin to get involved in a situation of adultery, testing the strength of marriage and unraveling surprising circumstances. I thought the movie itself was very entertaining, being filmed in a grim and serious way that had me attentive throughout. The acting was impressive as well, I specifically enjoyed the performance by Cillian Murphy. Overall, The Delinquent Season is an entertaining entry in the drama genre.

The Delinquent Season tells the story of two married couples living in Dublin; Jim (Cillian Murphy) and Danielle (Eva Birthistle), and Chris (Andrew Scott) and Yvonne (Catherine Walker). As the foursome are having dinner one evening, an argument breaks out between Chris and Yvonne, with Chris behaving in a worryingly irrational manner. A few days later, Chris confides in Jim as to why he's been having mood swings of late, swearing Jim to secrecy. Over the next few weeks, as Chris's mood swings become physically aggressive, Yvonne turns to Jim for support, and soon, they are in the midst of an affair. Jim, however, continues to keep Chris's secret.

The film treats well the topic of middle-class malaise and ennui, deftly shifting the audience's sympathy multiple times throughout. However, in his feature directorial debut, Mark O'Rowe misses a great opportunity for a really powerful dénouement, letting the narrative drag on for 10 minutes or so too long. Still though, it's well acted, and extremely realistic, attaining an almost documentarian objectivity at times. Well worth checking out.