Disco Pigs

This movie was incredibly beautiful. Sure there were some awkward and hard-to-watch moments, but overall a good movie and absolutely heartbreaking.

Disco Pigs has a wonderful beginning. Our heroine narrates as she escapes from her mother's womb. Her narration is wonderfully bitter about coming into the dreaded world. The images are startlingly original; the babies large eyes comparable with the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. We meet the baby's mother and father who, we're told, will never be as happy as they are at that moment. Then the baby is laid to rest. It starts to cry but stops when it sees a crying baby next to it. The neighbouring baby stops crying. The infants stare at each other, put their hands out and hold hands. I don't know how this scene was achieved. I can imagine recently born babies aren't easy to direct. What I do know is that this is a remarkably effective opening. One of the best and most original I've seen.

Unfortunately, the remainder of the film is not so great. It tries hard and its young director clearly adores the source material but it is this material that's the problem. There's very little new here. And the characters often let themselves down with strange shifts in their traits. For example, the bitter narration I've just spoken about is conducted by Sinead (Runt), the female lead. She's never as bitter again as she is at the beginning. It's a shame the movie focuses on her character at the start. It should have concentrated its efforts on Pig (played by the remarkable Cillian Murphy). His motivations are far more realised. Runt is a much shadier character and the audience never really understands her. Why does she not take to Pig? Why does she take to the bartender, is it his almost illiteracy or his red jumper? Is she gay? Does she fall in love with her roommate?

Comparisons to A Clockwork Orange or The Butcher Boy are unfair. It doesn't possess the soul of either of these. In fact, the violence here is far more sickening because its so gratuitous. Comparisons to Heavenly Creatures are more apt, but that movie was based on a true story, a trait this movie seems to think it has.

The acting from the leads especially Murphy is very solid, though he has a tendency to mumble. They both have a strong screen presence. The direction from Kirsten Sheridan is inconsistent. The beginning is fantastic and flashback scenes seeing the pair as children are equally remarkable but she chooses cliched editing for the disco scenes and leaves in a soliloquoy which betrays the films stage origins and leaves the audience desperately uncomfortable. Otherwise, she has plenty of potential.

Lastly, Disco Pigs was the first film I've seen that focuses for a large part on my native city. It was wonderful to see and I hope to see more. Sheridan though seems to have missed a few geography lessons. When Pig takes the bus from Cork, the film cuts to him on the bus and back to an establishing shot of a restaurant that's in Cork, he then hitchhikes to Donegal, which is about a five hour drive, then miraculously arrives back in Cork, all in the space of a day. Goofs aplenty.

Two 16-year-olds share a birthday, a love, a language of their own and a uniquely violent world view. Disco Pigs is an electric, disturbing and violent sprint through the unique world of Pig and Runt, two 17 year old kids who were born with a special, almost psychic affinity for one another.

It's a gentle and tender story about a pure, innocent love between two inseparable people who 'want for something different' out of life, lashing out at 'the sameness of it all'. When this invisible thread between Pig and Runt is stretched to breaking point, the inseparable are about to separate and which one will survive depends on which one can break free.

I'll stick my neck out here and say that Disco Pigs has a real Clockwork Orange feel about it - its use of a lyrical communication between our two leads - a combination of baby talk and Shakespeare monologue gave me that strong impression. The lead roles also exist in their own world, oblivious and unbound by the rules that govern us all.

Pig and Runt are two kids that really don't want to grow up, but despite their enforced isolation from common reality the pressures bear upon them to change. Pig wants the relationship to move to the 'next level', but innocent Runt either doesn't understand or doesn't want that right now. She seems more interested in experiencing other boys - finding a local bartender particularly intriguing. He is frustrated that their relationship, while deep, is not deeper, and she is perhaps seeing the blinkers removed from her eyes a bit, allowing the outside world a peek in.

I've made mention of the language that is used throughout the film used by Pig and Runt; the dialogue between the two is at times heart breakingly beautiful; witness Pig's love expressed in words as he talks to himself about the beautiful passion they would both share when they would make love for the first time. It nearly made this hardened critic cry.

Disco Pigs is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is unconventional, yes, but that is the stuff of greatness. The incredible soundtrack complements the visuals perfectly and is nearly a character in its own right. My only gripe is `REMOVE THE SUBTITLES!'

If this film gets a local Australian distribution, see it. It's that simple. 10 out of 10.

Personally, I don't understand why people have said this movie is so bad. It is fair to say that maybe sometimes the things Pig (Cillian Murphy) says are a bit much and put a downside on the movie but I've heard much worse in other, highly rated, movies. The storyline itself is a simple yet interesting and well thought out one which has a fantastic ending. If you do begin to watch this movie and dislike it it is still worth watching to the end and may perhaps change your view of it a little. This is the kind of movie people will usually either love or hate. Some will find it horrible and others will find it somewhat romantic and very good. Rather than reading comments that slate it and taking that view yourself you should definitely watch it and make your own mind up.

A film that creates a fine line between sweet and scary, 'Disco Pigs' takes you on a strange journey into a private little fairy tale world of two people who've never been separated who create chaos for everyone around them where ever they go until they're separated by their parents and school. However when reunited they find themselves drifting apart as one's behavior moves from the playfully anti-social to the dangerously psychotic.

Great performances by some of Irelands great new talents.

This films an interesting watch, as it seems to create a new genre: Romantic Thriller.

7.5/10