Frank the Monkey: The Entertainment Guide for Dublin (2006)

Middletown

Directed By: Brian Kirk

Cast: Matthew Macfayden, Daniel Mays, Eva Birthistle, Gerard McSorley

Reviewed By: Victoria Lock

Banana rating:

The opening scenes of Middletown waste no time in appealing directly to sympathetic emotions, by revealing two younger brothers – one of them sorely mistreated by a demanding and unfair father (McSorley), while the other is praised for his intelligence and declared to have ‘the gift’ required of a man who lives his life serving God.

The simple framing and raw images of a rural Protestant church in a tiny Northern Irish town introduce a complex and dark story. Fifteen years later, Gabriel Hunter (Matthew Macfayden) is due to arrive back in his hometown to replace the now elderly Reverend, after spending most of his life “doing God’s work” abroad. His brother Jim (Daniel Mays), who now works for the family business, is struggling with poverty, trying to support a pregnant wife, and struggles still more for his father’s approval.

Gabriel’s return sparks old resentment for Jim as his father blindly ignores Jim’s hard position, to glory in his other son’s words of God and high morality. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the new Reverend’s hard-line approach to ‘saving’ the sinners of the town will be to the detriment of the local public-house – run by Jim’s wife Caroline (Eva Birthistle) – and threatening most of the poverty-stricken couple’s income and moral pride. The situation worsens as Caroline forces Jim to choose between Gabriel and herself, and the drama escalates from this point on, seeing the consecutive birth of Jim’s child, his brother’s homicidal breakdown and finally the face-off of the two brothers.

The film wastes no time in drawing its audience into the story and its simple, intimate style of cinematography compliments this. The gritty, dark side of the town is further shown with dim, natural lighting and full-frontal shots of the none-too-rich Middletown buildings and its residents.

The high level of drama in this film is well handled by the sophisticated acting of the main cast, though it becomes slightly tiring towards the end. With a less skilled entourage, it could easily become a case of over-compensating with drama to dress up a production that is visually simple. However, it is the simplicity of technical detail that has made local films successful in the past and Middletown is no exception.

The story seems to grip onto the evocation of anger and sympathy in its audience to keep them attentive, but could have easily done so without so much high-intensity action. The crises just keep coming, and you may start to get the feeling you’re witnessing several episodes of a soap-opera cut into the length of a feature film. Director Brian Kirk’s past credits consist largely of television drama, which may have something to do with this. However, the film successfully tugs at all the right heartstrings to keep you involved for its entire length and provides some fascinatingly gruesome moments that give an insight into the darker side of humanity and its relationship with religion.

VERDICT:

With a little more subtlety this film would have scored a four or five, but unfortunately the overstated drama of its second half takes it out of the category that sends an audience home satisfied yet still thinking and puts it into the ‘good entertainment’ box.

Movie Trivia:

The writer Daragh Carville can be seen briefly drinking a pint in one of the bar scenes.