The story of the man who tried to sell his son The film follows a painful conflict between a boy who cannot speak and his father who cannot listen.
Drama, that's all. In the situation, there are many aggravating factors that put pressure on the psyche of the participants, playing along with some shadow stimuli.
John Doyle went through the war, and she left on him not just a stamp – a stigma. Together with Death, they deprived him of his semblance of adequacy, not developing in him the ability to adapt to the world, but aggravating its rigidity and turning the despair of losing a beloved woman into paranoia. The chasm between him and his son is filled with untimely fears, selfish beliefs and baseless fears, all of which are quite common for a man his age, who faces changes that do not fit into his world. He's in pain and doesn't understand why, after life has stopped, other people keep moving. Invent, put electricity into their homes, buy and sell land, fall in love. He is doubly hurt that his son, the only one left with him in this vast and empty universe, is trying to slip out of his trap and live his life. And not just to live with the daughter of a man John hates. A typical Romeo-Juliet conflict comes to mind much later when, after watching, you begin to analyze. Because here we are not dealing with medieval Italy or with two childish and spoiled teenagers.
Amon Doyle is used to obeying his father in everything. He does not even notice that he flounders within his own house like eels in a net, which he throws into the lake every day. His life consists of fishing and radio singing quietly in the kitchen. And out of regret. That his mother had died—he lacked the ordinary tenderness of man—that his father had prevented him from breathing, that he had achieved practically nothing but the proverbial education. Has he given up this education if he languishes in a village, in a house with a man who despises all technological progress?
And then the lake thing happens. John didn’t care about anything else – he didn’t want to, he didn’t know how to do it, so they only had fishing, which they kept on, interrupting the meager joys of life. And now he was taken away, and the neighbor’s guy died so successfully in the war, bringing his grieving relatives a lot of money.
Not too convincing play is compensated by the level of tragedy. At first glance, the film has a rather unsightly cladding, but do not let yourself be fooled. This is the case when the content pays for everything. There are times when you have to leave on a pure idea. This is the first work of Andrew Scott and the only work of Fiona Moloney, and they are both a little slouchy and clasped, besides, for some reason, constantly kissing. But Andrew perfectly plays with his voice and takes the first steps in improving his “clogged” look.
I once forced my classmates to watch this film, and they said it was terribly boring, but apparently you need to catch a particularly melancholic mood when you absolutely do not want to sit and stare into the void. Then the story of Eamon Doyle and his unbreakable hardness, which eventually gave rise, will be very useful. In addition, the movie touches some soul strings, tears them, and then holds them back. In Russia, it is not translated at all, and it is extremely difficult to find it, and where it is there is a terrible quality. Thus, the number of potential viewers today - when there are already and Sherlock, and City, and Bachelor party in Irish, is decreasing - surrendered to us an hour-long film twenty years ago. But if anyone decides to look, he will find something of his own, good and unburned.
6 out of 10