Black Irish

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.

Problems are hurled at the McKay family as if they were in a batting cage with an endless supply of quarters and no bat. This South Boston Irish-Catholic family deals with the rock bottom side of life they best way they know how. Baseball quietly emerges as a rallying dynamic for the seemingly-defeated male McKays in this coming of age story. It has a lot of heart, and there's a lot to like here. My criticism is that there's too much misfortune for one 95 minute story - as if every stereotype in play today had to be included. It moved me nevertheless. I recommend it. It seems to have gone directly to DVD but should have enjoyed a stint in the theater first.

A young man struggles to grow up with principles as his family begins to self-destruct around him in this coming of age drama. Cole McKay (Michael Angarano) is a boy in his middle-teens growing up in an Irish-Catholic family in Boston. While Cole has dreams of playing major league baseball some day, his parents Desmond (Brendan Gleeson) and Margaret (Melissa Leo) are blind to his ambitions, and his older brother Terry (Tom Guiry) is a petty criminal who is unwittingly drawing Cole into his orbit. While Margaret is obsessed with projecting an image that the McKay family are happy and God-fearing folk, Desmond has been sinking deeper into depression ever since he lost his job, and his marriage is slowly but surely falling apart. The family's pride takes a body blow when Cole's teenage sister Kathleen (Emily Van Camp) discovers she's pregnant, but Cole decides it's time he took on some adult responsibilities, and gets himself a part-time job at a restaurant. Black Irish was the first directorial effort for screenwriter Brad Gann.

This Boston Irish-American flavored coming-of-age film is extremely typical of any other film of it's type complete with alcoholic father, doting over-bearing mother, fighting siblings, a family in disarray, and so on and so forth. You've likely seen something like it in some variation a million times before. What sets it a tad above films of the same ilk is very commendable performances by Micheal Angarano as Cole and especially Brendan Gleeson as his father, Desmond (the latter is simply riveting) Will this film revolutionize coming of age flicks in any way? no, not at all, but it's a well enough told tale well acted enough to be worth a watch.

My Grade: C+

Region 1 DVD Extras: audio Commentary; a 36 minute behind the scenes featurette; and trailers for "Razor Eaters" & "Antonia"

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