 "Photo: Photo courtesy of Anywhere Road Films")
There are many reasons not to like "Black Irish." Brad Gann, who wrote and directed the film, has packed so much melodrama into the 92-minute film that he makes Lifetime movies look tepid. The coming-of-age drama about 15-year-old Cole McKay (remarkably played by Michael Angarano) and his dysfunctional family relies on exaggerated conflict and stereotypical use of Irish-Catholic guilt to tell a rather simple moral: While you can't choose where you come from, you can choose where you're going.
Somehow (and it's hard to pinpoint exactly why), this clichéd concept works beautifully. While some might call the film uninspired and hackneyed, most will love it - I know I did. Anyone who has ever felt held back by the situation he or she was born into will, too.
Cole McKay is a kid with potential. A good student and pitcher for his Catholic school baseball team, Cole is on his way to joining the priesthood. That is, if his family can keep it together long enough for him to do so.
Brendan Gleeson's performance as Cole's disillusioned, unemployed alcoholic father is a tour de force and should certainly garner him an Oscar nod. Best known to us as Mad-Eye Moody in the Harry Potter movies, Gleeson tries his hand here at a multifaceted character and succeeds tremendously.
Cole's mother, played by understated actress Melissa Leo, is a social worker dedicated to maintaining the farce that their family is a happy one. This means she has to send her pregnant daughter (Emily VanCamp of "Everwood" fame) to a convent and give up hope for her older son (Tom Guiry) who, with a rap sheet and drug addiction, is intent on taking his brother down on his own dangerous path.
Tom Guiry, who played a similar part in the "The Black Donnellys," is amazing here, nailing the subtle complexities and humanity of his troubled character with a noteworthy performance. Guiry is like a young Sean Penn, and he just may become a star.
There's an incredibly moving scene where Guiry's Terry offers to take his sister to a women's clinic in a rare moment of kindness. As VanCamp walks toward his (stolen) car, Guiry reaches out his hand to touch her shoulder in reassurance but pulls it back at the last moment.
It is perhaps moments like these that make this movie one to be seen.
Masterfully interweaving the character arcs into a poignant and heartrending climax, Gann proves his worth as a director. Though this type of family drama has been done before, Gann treats his characters with genuine compassion and asks for audiences to do the same. It's definitely a nice break from the self-congratulating indie films that crowd hipster theaters today.
While centered on Angarano's character, "Black Irish" is ultimately an ensemble movie, and it is the effective performances of all the actors that bring richness to an otherwise relentlessly pessimistic film.
