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These, if we are old enough, are the images that we cling to; that's how it was.
Unless you are Francie Brady. Francie lives in a small town in Ireland at the beginning of the sixties. His mother, unable to cope with her dysfunctional son and abusive husband, is having a nervous breakdown. His father, who was once a promising musician ( sure, didn't he once meet Eddie Calvert?), is now a bitter and cynical drunk. In the outside world, Kennedy and Khrushchev are eyeball to eyeball over the Cuba crisis, and the threat of nuclear war looms. And that is just the start of Francie Brady's problems; he also has to contend with Mrs Nugent.
Mrs Nugent is refined; she has lived in England and has brought home some sophisticated manners. Mrs Nugent has a nice home, a respectable husband and a studious son. Her life is far removed from that of Francie and his family, and he despises everything that she stands for. When he steals some comics from her son Philip, she declares war on the Brady's.
The film follows Francie as he lurches from one crisis to another, immersing himself in a fantasy world of comic books and television. His only touchstone with reality is the friendship he has with his pal Joe. As long as he and Joe are together then everything is all right, partners and blood brothers they can take on the world. But Francie, holding on to his sanity with dreams of winning a million, trillion dollars, does not notice that Joe is changing.
This is an intelligent study of the human condition. Poverty stricken Francie hates Mrs Nugent and her family, but underneath is the envy. He really wants to join her warm and cosy world. He accepts the misery of his life with an outward show of insouciance and mad optimism, but behind the bravado you can sense the pressure building up. The climax of the film is bloody and brutal.
It is a powerful film, laced with black humour. Based on the novel by Patrick McCabe, director Neil Jordon makes a valiant attempt to transfer the essence of the book to the screen, and almost succeeds. Perhaps he plays the humour card once too often though, and loses some of the edgy menace of the novel.
Eamon Owens plays Francie, and gives a great performance in his first major role. Blessed with a stocky frame and a face only a mother could love, he engenders disgust and sympathy in equal measure. Alan Boyle as Joe, who also gives a mature performance for one so young, ably assists him.
Milo O'Shea, Ardal O'Hanlon, Sinead O'Connor and Sean Hughes all have cameos in this film, and if you can believe Sean Hughes as a psychiatrist then you can believe in Father Christmas.
All in all this is a imaginative film, with good acting, good direction and a terrific storyline. If, however, you have already read the book, you may be just a touch disappointed.
There has been a slew of "Irish Catholic misery" films recently, but this is something really special from Neil Jordan.
The performances are exceptional - and it's great to see the peerless Fiona Shaw (Mrs Nugent) in one of her pre-Harry Potter film roles - but it's the script's knife-edge walk between black humour and tragedy that lifts it to "must see" status.
Why it hasn't been made available on DVD is a mystery - it's a great, great film.
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