AllMovie

The Luck of Ginger Coffey is a depressing kitchen sink drama with an intense and powerful central performance from Robert Shaw that is quite unforgettable. It's also more than a little overpowering, and there's the paradox: Shaw's performance is far and away the best thing in Ginger Coffey, but it overwhelms the rest of the cast and the movie. Without it, Ginger Coffey would not be worth watching, but with it, the film becomes more about a wonderful star acting turn than about the tender yet brutal family story it wants to explore. This is not to denigrate the rest of the cast. Mary Ure and Libby McClintock are quite good, but they don't register next to Shaw. Unfortunately, while Ginger Coffey's screenplay provides Shaw with a part he can sink his teeth into, it doesn't work very well on its own. It tries to find the truth inside a number of clichéd situations, but doesn't dig deeply enough, and there are plot points (such as Ginger's job loss) that come across as insufficiently motivated. Irvin Kershner's direction doesn't help matters; it's stolid and lacks variety. After a while, Ginger Coffey becomes wearying, even with Shaw's dynamic performance.