The script reflects about the changes of the traditional ways of living and social interaction in rural areas through Josie's character. The movie is a good depiction of rural life and how modernisation has affected the pace and social dynamics of traditional towns, and a social group that is unable to harmoniously mix the new ways of living with with its very traditional hierarchic structure. The script makes many good points about social isolation and lack of adaptation, explores the nature (and limits) of friendship, the contradictions of modern Law and old ways of socialising, and the thin line separating success and fracas in such an environment.
Thus, the viewer witnesses the lives of the town's apparently happy (but deeply dissatisfied) dwellers, their miseries and broken dreams, their monotonous social interaction, their social hierarchy, and their latent immobility and frustration.
The main problem of the movie is its overall dullness and low pace, and the fact that some characters are just sketched, so their actions appear a bit out of the blue (so to speak) sometimes. Pat Shortt, the leading actor, is inexpressive in his performance, as most of the cast; I blame the mediocre direction and the unbalanced script for that.
The conversations of Josie with a horse, his interaction with some of the teens in town, his sexual frustration, his Spartan way of life, and the changes in other characters when Josie starts to behave differently trying to break his position as clown or punch-bag in the town are the things I liked the most. I also liked the ending, which is a bit unexpected, surreal and very moving, as it shows how a speck in your actions can create an unbearable tension in your psyche if you live in a narrow-minded rural town.
The dull performances by most actors, the dragging tempo, and the poor direction killed a story that had many possibilities and deserved a bit of more effort. However, this is an interesting film that shows a face of Ireland that is not usually presented in film, and whose premises could be easily transplanted to other rural European towns.
