An Irish Goodbye 2022

6.7 / 10   47 vote(s)
Drama

In rural Northern Ireland, following the untimely death of their mother, a young man with Down syndrome and his estranged brother discover her unfulfilled bucket list.

Release Date 2022-03-04
Runtime 23m
Directors Tom Berkeley, Ross White, Graham Kinniburgh, Sam Bell, Narayan Van Maele
Producers Pearce Cullen, Tom Berkeley, Ross White, Sean A Murray, Yves Dominicy, Katy Jackson, Brett C. Persson, Nick Sadler, Keith Kehoe, Kirsty Bell, Phil McKenzie, Kevin McGrath
Writers Ross White, Tom Berkeley

Paddy Jenkins ("Father O'Shea") acts well as the conduit here between two brothers who are unexpectedly reunited by the death of their mother. "Turlough" (Seamus O'Hara) has left Northern Ireland to work in Engand and when he returns, is set on selling the family home still lived in by his younger brother "Lorcan" who has Down Syndrome. As you'd expect, the humour here is dark ("is she still warm?") and the language quite ripe, but this has a wonderful honesty to it as the latter lad tries to work his way through a list of one hundred things their mum wanted to do before she died! There's some fun with an urn and some ti-chi, and they even go into space - well, sort of! Good fun with strong undercurrents of family, love and affection.

CinemaSerf

This is a comedy-drama that is not only short but small, with just three characters and a voiceover. The two brothers grew on me quickly and the quirky priest was certainly no cliched character. The humor ranges from slapstick to subtle and back again. It contains a minor twist that I didn’t see coming but still was believable. It is worth 20+ minutes of your time, and how different to have the end credits take only a minute or less?!

Peter McGinn