Trendy young playwright and screenwriter Conor McPherson (I Went Down, 1997) makes his directing debut with this understated comedy. Widowed fish-and-chips shop owner George Beneventi (Brian Cox) lives in a sleepy coastal town along with his three children. Eldest son Frank (Peter McDonald) helps with the shop, college student Carmel (Valerie Spelman) is involved with a lecherous philosophy professor, and younger brother Joe (Laurence Kinlan) causes trouble at school. Being the off-season, George is having a hard time gathering the funds to pay his smooth but deadly bookie, "Simple" Simon McCurdie (Brendan Gleeson). Frank, who seethes with the knowledge that his dad is indebted to the thug, stages an inept though miraculously successful robbery of the criminal's lair. Meanwhile, Joe befriends Damien, the new kid in town, only to discover that his pal is a psychopath. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival.
by Jonathan Crow
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