Worth: $17.00
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Cast:
Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, Niamh Algar, Roisin O’Neill, Kiljan Moroney
Intro:
...satisfyingly original take on some old themes.
This Irish drama has a strong sense of place as well as a very poetic and elliptical title. The alternative title – ‘Shadow of Violence’ – is perhaps closer to describing what the film is about conventionally, but it doesn’t get to the more subtle elements of the tale.
Set in rural Ireland, this is a study of certain kind of family gangsterism, perhaps even a certain kind masculinity.
We open with a look at the life of Armstrong (a brooding and nuanced performance from Cosmo Jarvis). He is well named because Arm, as he is known, is mostly good for strong arming people. He is an ex-boxer, who retired from the ring after accidentally killing an opponent. Now he takes a lot of drugs and uses his skill at bashing people in the service of the local drug running crime family, the Devers. That typically extended family has its tentacles into almost aspect of village life, but they don’t rule unopposed.
The general law of gangster films is that the ‘heroes’ must not only have rival gangs to ward off, but must also become fractious and fight amongst themselves. There genre tropes are here alright, but the film reaches for much more thoughtful territory than just being an Irish Guy Ritchie flick.
Firstly, there is Arm’s relationship with his estranged wife Ursula (actress-to-watch Naimh Algar). They have an autistic little boy whose own mute frustration mirrors his dad’s. Arm wants to do the right thing by his boy and his ex, but he lacks the emotional intelligence to find a new footing for their relationship. One of his main problems is that he is under the thrall of the cynical and street smart Dympna (Barry Keoghan). Dympna is a manipulative little bastard, but strangely adept at getting his way, and thinks he can successfully play the various characters off against each other.
Keoghan (Dunkirk, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) is an odd screen presence but there is something about him that you can’t avoid being drawn in by. It is no exaggeration to say that he has the potential to be the best character actor from Ireland since Brendan Gleeson. His presence in the film is reason enough to tune in.
Early career director Nick Rowland gives us many other fine performances to latch on to, in this satisfyingly original take on some old themes.
