I didn't realize until the very end that this film is based on a book of the same name, a true story about Brendan Behan, an Irish writer and political activist, and his time in a British labor camp. It's pitched as a dreamy, romantic film, and it really only comes alive in the last 20 to 25 minutes, where the emotions run high and it tugs at your heart. For the first half I had no clue where the story was headed, though it did start making sense eventually. Brendan is a 16 year old Irish boy who gets caught trying to smuggle a few sticks of dynamite on board, and he's sent off to Borstal, an underage detention center. That's where he meets Charlie, a sailor who's openly gay and also locked up there. Brendan makes it clear he's not gay, but the two still become really close friends. A lot of the film is about what these two get up to along with a few other boys at Borstal, and how Brendan changes during that time. They try to break out of the place, and it costs...
This film has been directed in a different fashion. You will see past and present collide somewhere together. It is beautifully shown how memories of the past haunt a family to an extent that everyone goes through the same phase.aving run away as a self-hating, obese and abused 15-year old, William returns to his parents home after 10 years to attend his sister's wedding. He's happy in his new life, with a partner, steady work and having lost all of his excess weight. Being back at home revives all of awful memories of his childhood: overeating because it's the one thing nobody can stop him from doing; being hit by his drunken and abusive father; being seen by his grandmother when he has his first sexual encounter with a male friend; his mother arranging for him to have sex with a woman while she sat in the next room. New revelations are in store however. After the wedding is over, he finds that he has a new sister Violet whom he did not know existed. He sees how his mother is struggling with everything in this dysfunctional family. She has to bear the brunts of father, take care of her mother in law and also deal with the sudden disappearance of her son. She has had enough and she just leaves home and disappears from everything. William now has to take care of his father. They try to reconcile. Meanwhile, His sister knows that her brother and now husband have an attraction for each other. She gives them a chance to relive their fantasies from their teenage days. The mother is found nowhere. Meanwhile, William also finds out that Violet is actually his daughter from the sexual encounter that his mother made him do. Having had enough, he just leaves the town with his daughter.
Oh boy!! This family was dysfunctional or what! I kept wondering how can anyone live in such an atmosphere. The quirk infested family includes a gay asthmatic son, a foul mouthed daughter, a wishy-washy mother, a senile old granny, the abusive gardener father, and a kid. Overall it is such a depressing environment. There were a few moments in the film that were touching and/or calm, but they were few and far between.
Overall just an ok film. It tries to be different (which it is) but not every enjoyable. (4.5/10)
Comments