An Irish Goodbye

A thoroughly-enjoyable short film centering around the difficulties and complexities of family life. Two adult brothers reunite for their mother's funeral against the backdrop of rural Northern Ireland. Seamus O'Hara and James Martin portray the tragi-comic duo with raw athenticity and a dash of Irish humour.

The younger of the two siblings, Lorcan, strives relentlessly to re-bond with his estranged brother Turlough and avert the possibility of having to live with their only remaining relative, an aunt. What unfolds is a series of subtle comic episodes between the pair as they embark on the journey to fulfil their deceased mother's bucket list. Paddy Jenkins as Father O'Shea further adds to the humour one can only expect from the Irish. A crackin' short from start to finish.

Seamus O'Hara returns to the family farm and his pugnacious brother James Martin. Their mother has died, and what are they to do with the acres.... and James. Before they do anything else, they agree to do the one hundred tasks on their mother's bucket list.

Difficult families are one of the basic tropes of good story-telling, from Oedipus Rex on, and this falls into that category, with some ill-tempered sullenness and awkward silences in between the increasingly odd and downright fanciful quests of the late old woman, poor woman.

And now I had better end this review before I begin to sound like Barry Fitzgerald in THE QUIET MAN.

An Irish Goodbye (2022) -

This was an amusing little film, but I'm not sure that I would call it comical, because it's actually how a lot of people do interact, although I suppose that the priest was at least a humorous character, with all of his errors and slips ups.

It was an enjoyable story of loss, love between brothers and how people move on in their grief.

Was it so outstanding a story that it deserved an Oscar? I don't know? I've seen a lot of short films and many that have delivered more of a punch, but perhaps I'm looking for something different from the films that I watch. However, I couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't awarded because one of the lead actors was otherwise abled.

Because of the farm setting and the somber tone of their Mothers death, I did feel that it bore some resemblance to 'Gods Own Country' (2017), although the two leads in that were obviously not brothers. It just had a similar vibe about it.

As with a lot of short films there just wasn't enough of it to really get in to, in order to see whether it was good or not, with an extended plot it could be very well received and genuinely entertaining, not that this snippet of their lives wasn't fun too. What they managed to fit in to half an hour was good and there was plenty to laugh with, if not so much to laugh at.

629.84/1000.

Paddy Jenkins ("Father O'Shea") acts well as the conduit here between two brothers who are unexpectedly reunited by the death of their mother. "Turlough" (Seamus O'Hara) has left Northern Ireland to work in Engand and when he returns, is set on selling the family home still lived in by his younger brother "Lorcan" who has Down Syndrome. As you'd expect, the humour here is dark ("is she still warm?") and the language quite ripe, but this has a wonderful honesty to it as the latter lad tries to work his way through a list of one hundred things their mum wanted to do before she died! There's some fun with an urn and some ti-chi, and they even go into space - well, sort of! Good fun with strong undercurrents of family, love and affection.

All the attention this year has been on the banshees of inisherin, a plodding and wooden film, yet this short film was streets ahead. It shows the interaction between a dedicated but handicapped lad and his disinterested brother. The relationship is fantastic and james martin himself should have gotten an Oscar for his part. Brilliantly played. I deliberately gave it one star less than a full 10, as the film had the appearances that it was actually shortened, possibly to ensure it was classified as a short film. But it would have been great to have it stretched to at least an hour. Far more believable than the dire banshees.