A look at The Problem With People (M)
Perhaps a movie best seen on a quiet Sunday afternoon except we saw it on a heatwave Saturday and the temperature in the movie never exceeded very moderate levels.
Irish village undertaker Ciaran (Colm Meaney) looks after his elderly and fading father Fergus (Des Keogh) who, before he passes, has a couple of deathbed requests.
The most urgent? He wants a rift with the American half of the family to be smoothed over.
So Ciaran makes dozens of phone calls before he locates his cousin Barry (Paul Reiser), a New York real estate tycoon.
But Barry has health problems also, although clearly not as dire as the ones affecting Fergus.
His heart murmurs are exacerbated when his wife divorces him so Barry reckons a sojourn in an Irish village would help him recover.
He flies across the ditch to Ireland where he’s greeted warmly by Fergus and also forms a cosy relationship with his B&B owner.
And before he passes old Fergus heads up a sing-a-long in the village pub where two 20-year-old locals try to perfect their Brooklyn accents, only to turn out comical sounds.
Then after his death Barry finds in Fergus’ will that he’s inherited a thin slice of land below the family home and just inland from the lake.
So he calls up the local earth movers and builders to start on a housing development project.
Ciaran and village police sergeant Lizzie McGrath (Elmear Morrissey), who’s great in her role, intervene and Ciaran and his cousin heal the rift at an Irish footy game on the village reserve.
A nice LGBTQ+ touch as the film nears its climax sees Barry’s difficult daughter Natalya (Jane Levy) marrying Ciaran’s estranged wife (Lucianne McEvoy) as the village comes together.
And who’s the officiating person at the marriage ceremony ? Why police sergeant Lizzie, of course.
Verdict: it’s mildly entertaining and amusing but 3 stars sees it out. And only just 3 stars, at that.
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