Filmmakers have always enjoyed making fairy tales out of the Irish.
Films like Waking Ned Devine, The Matchmaker, and even Angela’s Ashes,
portray the Emerald Isle as a mystically tragic, magically comedic,
romantically simplistic motherland to characters that are
extraordinarily ordinary. From the women (hair pulled back in scarves
and bare shins exposed under wool skirts) to the men (dressed in vests
and knickers, hobbling about penguin-like after one too many guinesses)
the poor Irish person has become a caricature of epic proportion.
Agnes Browne (Angelica Huston) is one such character. She’s as naive
about matters of sexuality (such as her childish fascination with French
kissing and "organisms") as she is wise about dealing with death,
friendship and endurance. In the few moments that this film’s flat plot
allows, Huston conveys emotions credibly and even pins humor with
spontaneity. The story is based on Brendan O’Carroll’s novel "The
Mammy," which translates well to the visual. The central Dublin
neighborhood of the 1960s is tangible and the pace of everyday life is
real.
The film’s pace, however, seems to stretch like indestructible elastic,
with no heightening climax, nor a liberating denouement. After burying
her late husband, Agnes faces the grim task of forging ahead and raising
seven often raucous children. Slowly, she learns to be both mom and dad,
while continuing a tight friendship with best pal Marion (an excellent
Marion O’Dwyer) and trying to get things going with baker Pierre (Arno
Chevier), a new male suitor. She keeps a sordid loan shark (mostly) at
bay and is able to carry the spirits of her fatherless family to another
level.
Oddly, the characters become more like caricatures as the story
progresses, scattering the substance of their interactions and the plot
drifts into predictable, maudlin sentimentality,. What is supposed to
taste like a raw, meaty community, comes off bland and forgettable. And
the highly fantastical ending is a gratuitous choice, as Agnes suddenly
turns into Cinderella, riding away with Tom Jones.
As an actress, Huston relates naturally to this coming of age character.
As a director, Huston capitalizes on her own immense screen presence to
inflate the persona of Agnes Brown — which unfortunately overshadows some
of the other great performers. More striking performances will come from
Ray Winstone, who starred in Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth, one film
which entirely annihilates that Irish romanticism, and actually leaves
the dialect grating at your heart.
Neither heart-wrenching nor hysterical, Agnes Browne is merely somewhat
entertaining, but could have been much more.
Christina Kline & Michael Clark
: Drop what you're doing. See it now.
: Worth your $$$
: Wait for video
: Not worth seeing
: An insult to humanity
