The Commitments

This is the simple and captivating story of Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins, fantastic like the whole cast), a young guy who decides to form a soul band in Dublin, and all the amazing people who join him. They've got musical talent and big dreams, but is that enough to climb to the top (and stay there)?

Alan Parker has made some very diverse films ("Midnight Express", "Angel Heart", "Mississippi Burning", "Angela's Ashes") in his long career, but you can see that music is in his blood and one of his favourite themes ("Bugsy Malone", "Fame", "Pink Floyd The Wall", "Evita"). He orchestrates a mostly unknown cast (which includes a very young Glen Hansard, from the recent hit "Once") in a tale of hope, determination, and great music. The British have a great eye for the bittersweet side of life and misfits in general ("The Full Monty", "Little Voice", "Billy Elliot" are fine examples), often with music as an important factor in the background (coincidence? I don't think so!). "The Commitments" is a beautiful, cheerful film, as passionate and memorable as Cameron Crowe's masterpiece "Almost Famous", and certainly one of the best music films of all time. 10/10.

Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) is a small time hustler selling pirated tapes and T-shirts. Outspan Foster (Glen Hansard) and Derek Scully (Ken McCluskey) ask Jimmy to manage their wedding band. Jimmy declares that they need to be a hard working Soul band. He puts an ad in the papers and it's a parade of wrong music. His Elvis loving dad (Colm Meaney) doesn't get it. Sax playing Dean Fay (Félim Gormley) is the first brought into the band. Billy Mooney (Dick Massey) is the drummer. Jimmy gets Natalie Murphy (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Imelda Quirke (Angeline Ball) and Bernie McGloughlin (Bronagh Gallagher) as the backup singers. After watching a drunken Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong) sing at the wedding, he gets him as the lead singer. Joey "The Lips" Fagan (Johnny Murphy) is the womanizing experienced trumpet player who comes up with their name "The Commitments". He hires the volatile Mickah Wallace (Dave Finnegan) as their security.

This is fun. It's great music. The cast is mostly musicians trying their hands at acting. Some of them would become quite interesting. It's based on the first of novelist Roddy Doyle's lower class Barrytown trilogy. It's heart warming and then sadly inevitable. The portrayal of the Irish lower class is one of loving profanity. The one word I would use is life. This movie is full of life. The movie could have ended with something predictable but this way it's poetry.

Alan Parker's brilliant directing effort on THE COMMITMENTS really shines. More than an entertaining spectacle, it has a whole lot of influence on the soul music circuit. Shots of Dublin city life are nicely photographed. The musical acts are extremely well talented and well done, if only the occasional dialogue breaks didn't interrupt the awesome sound. There could've been some more new tunes instead of old ones, but it's amazing to discover the fictional band's lead singer pull them off out of his lungs. Phenomenal! At least you can try to find the soundtrack album. One thing stands out the best: the casting. We need more of today's movies to do the same thing: to provide creative acting talents. The musical genre of modern Hollywood needed something like this to keep it afloat. Highly recommended!

Who needs expensive movie stars when a group of unknowns can light up the screen like this lot?

On paper, it sounds like a failure - a cast comprising almost entirely of untrained and untested performers, set in working class Dublin, based on the novella by Roddy Doyle. By God, does it defy expectations.

Jimmy Rabbitte is a working class Dublin lad who's been collecting unemployment benefits for two years. But he dreams of bigger things, namely making it big in the music industry. He sets out to form a soul band, and assembles a motley crew of musicians and singers, most of whom don't know each other and many of whom can't stand each other.

The look of the film is gritty and realistic - nothing is glossed over. North Dublin is presented in all it's glory. The home lives of the band members are depicted warts and all - their private lives set the scene for the inevitable personality clashes that are almost as explosive as the music. In the mix is the unique character of the Irish people - at one point Jimmy enters a tenement block and, as he waits for the lift, looks over to see a boy with a horse. "You aren't taking that in the lift, are you?" he asks. "I have to," the boy replies. "The stairs would kill him."

The real star of the show is the music - this film spawned two hugely successful soundtrack albums. The band members were cast partly due to their musical ability, and the results are superlative. The stand out is Andrew Strong as Deco - would you believe this kid was only 16 when the film was made? His amazing voice belies his tender years, and suggests that he's been smoking a packet a day since the age of about four. At the end of the day with is a fine ensemble piece, much like the band. The acting may be a little wonky at times, but the hysterical dialogue makes up for that.

Most remarkably, this is a feel good film that does not rely on any of the conventional feel good plot devices. There are no group hugs, no plot conveniences, no trite happy endings. Just a shrewdly observed and wittily captured human story about people who dream of making it out of their dreary world. And isn't that something we can all relate to?

The Commiments holds a very unique place in Irish modern movie history. For a start you have to understand that the Dublin that the film was shot in was incredibly bleak in the early '90's. Unemployemt was huge, money was scarce etc. When the film opened in Dublin it was a genuine phenomenon. The biggest cinema in Dublin (The Savoy) showed the picture around the clock on it's opening weekend and it played to pretty much full houses at all shows. I watched, for the 4th time, with a crowd of approx 500 at 6.00am on Sunday and the atmosphere was electric. This was a film we could relate to, it was about us and where we lived. Suffice to say it was a monster hit in Ireland at the time. I was working in the cinema business at the time (managing UCI) and I was lucky enough to be at the premiere. When the cast were introduced one by one the roof lifted. I attended the party where The Commitments (all of them) played in a tiny club on the docks called The Waterfront and to say that was pretty special is an understatement. To this day I'm still friend with Dick Massey (Billy Mooney) and and from to time to time he will remissness about his time with the film. The Commitments only played live together three times, the Dublin premiere, the NY premiere the LA premiere. I saw then in their home town! While the movie is certainly flawed it is still a classic for it's time.