The Boys and Girl from County Clare | Film Review

FILM MOVIE REVIEW

The Boys and Girl from County Clare **

by Ed Gonzalez on January 12, 2005 Jump to Comments (0) or Add Your Own

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The Boys and Girl from County Clare begins with grainy black-and-white footage of three kids toe-tapping along to their own Ceili music, and unless you read the film's press notes in advance, you'd be hard-pressed to know that director John Irvin means to set up an age-old sibling rivalry. Some 30 years later, the Beatles are invading the world and groups of musicians are descending upon a small Irish town hosting an ostensibly reputable music competition. Among the rival Ceili competitors are estranged brothers Jimmy (Colm Meaney) and John Joe (Bernard Hill). The former left his hometown many years ago for Liverpool in pursuit of money and women, leaving the latter behind on their family's land. It's in County Clare where petty grudges resurface and melodramas manifest when their respective bands converge the day prior to the big competition. Caught in the crossfire are Jimmy's star flutist, Teddy (Being Julia's Shaun Evans), and John Joe's star fiddler, Anne (Andrea Corr of the Irish band The Corrs), whose bourgeoning romance brings out all sorts of irrationality in Anne's mother. Chockfull of randy boozing and comic non sequitors more mystifying than amusing, Boys and Girl from County Clare rightfully earns comparisons to Milos Forman's early work in that it unravels as if it didn't have a single care in the world. Which is not to say that that the film is unpleasant—though its second half is agreeably soapy, if you're not a Ceili fan, you're likely to doze off by the end of the first reel.

Director(s): John Irvin
Screenplay: Nicholas Adams
Cast: Bernard Hill, Colm Meaney, Patrick Bergin, Charlotte Bradley, Andrea Corr, Shaun Evans, Jim Nesbitt
Distributor: First Look International
Runtime: 90 min.
Rating: PG-13
Year: 2003