"Ballywalter" is one of those regional films that's funded by the local film board as potentially a springboard for new and interesting talent. Sometimes the people involved overreach themselves but that's not the case here. Instead we have a nicely played two-hander that sticks to its knitting and doesn't try anything fancy.
What this delivers is a pair of fine performances from Seana Kerslake and Patrick Kielty as they're brought together in a taxi shuttling up to Belfast and back again. This provides plenty of space for them to slowly reveal who they are and what they're about. There are no great surprises but it's all handled in a sensitive and gently comedic fashion.
What the film doesn't do, which feels right, is to try to manufacture more out of the situation than it deserves. There's no whirlwind romance, surprise intervention or lottery win to make their situation more than it is. Instead "Ballywalter" allows the characters to nudge one another in the right direction as we so often do in life.
So maybe I can nudge you in the direction of this film if you get the chance to see it?
