Mikel Murfi Movies
- 1995
This evocative, at times chilling, Irish drama offers a bruising glimpse into the psychological effects of a bad marriage in a country where divorce is still illegal, forcing both partners to endure their torment in silence. The story begins in the present and then flashes back to different points to explain the events leading up to the central conflict. Corporal Liam is first seen drunk, quietly angry and emotionally unstable. He starts a fight with his wife Tina. Earlier in the day he had been watching the sexy, maliciously flirtatious Michelle. Later he goes with some friends, including her brother Frank, to the pub to hoist a few. Tina is seen shopping and being forced into an electronics store by a girl friend. She meets and speaks to the cheerful Ronnie, Michelle's husband. Though Michelle is unkind to him, he tries hard to ignore her constant put-downs. Though Tina quietly conveys her interest in the steady seeming Ronnie. Liam takes his lust for Michelle to an entirely different, much darker level. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1995
In this comedy, a former pitcher for the Boston Red Sox tries to cope after his knuckleball puts another player into a coma. To escape the publicity, pitcher Billy Conway changes his name and moves to Ireland. He meets Heather O'Neil, and independent feisty woman trying to avoid Parker Danagher, a local salesman who tries to court her. Romance ensues. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, two thugs are sent to Ireland to collect a small debt. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
The ghosts of Jonathan Swift and friends pay a visit to two Dublin spiritualists in this Irish drama, adapted from Yeat's one-act play. In 1928, Miss McKenna, an aging spinster and the head of the Dublin Spiritual Society invites a visiting medium, Mrs. Henderson over to try to contact Jonathan Swift. He comes with his two women in tow. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Chaplin, Geraldine James, (more)
"The Irish are the blacks of Europe, Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland, and the North Siders are the blacks of Dublin ... so say it loud -- I'm black and I'm proud!" Or so Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) tells his slightly puzzled friends as he tries to assemble a rhythm & blues show band in a working class community in Dublin in Alan Parker's film The Commitments. Jimmy is a would-be music business wheeler and dealer, and he's decided what Dublin needs is a top-shelf soul band. However, top-shelf soul musicians are hard to find in Dublin, so he has to make do with what he can find. However, after a long round of auditions, Jimmy makes two inspired discoveries: Deco (Andrew Strong), an abrasive and alcoholic streetcar conductor who nevertheless has a voice like the risen ghost of Otis Redding, and Joey "The Lips" Fagan (Johnny Murphy), a horn player who knows soul music backwards and forwards and claims to have played with everyone from Wilson Pickett to Elvis Presley. Before long, the band -- called the Commitments -- is packing them in at local clubs. But do they have what it takes to make the big time? Based on the novel by Roddy Doyle, who also co-wrote the screenplay, The Commitments is sparked by fine performances by its young cast and enthusiastic performances of a number of '60s soul classics; the cast, who play their own instruments, reassembled the band for a concert tour after the film became a hit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Arkins, Michael Aherne, (more)
