The Luck of Ginger Coffey

Ginger Coffey (Robert Shaw) and his wife Vera (Mary Ure) with their daughter Paulie are struggling in Montreal. He can't seem to keep a good job, but keeps hoping for a break. Vera expects him to buy boat tickets back to her family in Dublin. He finally tells her the truth. He has already spent the ticket money. He cannot stop lying and she has enough.

This is a Canadian movie that feels a lot more like a British film about the lower class. Robert Shaw has a lot to do with that and he's magnificent. This feels like a Ken Loach film. The man is spinning a lot of plates and they keep falling over.

tell it all! And what a wonderful, and completely factual appraisal of what a miracle the USA/Canada have been for Immigrants--"before Political Correctness" caused us to be very much less candid about the truth of the matter--and more concerned with the superficiality of the "acceptance" of the society.

The one aspect to the Quebecois' comment at the bar, was when Ginger was asked, "Do you speak French?" and Ginger's reply was, "Well, I can parlez vous enough to get by.."; the French-Canadian summed it up perfectly: "That's the problem with this country; we learn English, you never learn French-"! This is a wonderful movie- NOTE all of the US Built Automobiles in Quebec; much before they were manufacturing them in Canada as many of them are now.

Great Comment, Roxanne; and Wonderful Movie!

If I had not known the director's name, I could have thought it was a Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson or Karel Reisz, or even John Schlesinger's film, the lead film makers of the kitchen sink drama period of the UK film industry, typical of this period, kind of Ken Loach before ts time. But that takes place in Canada instead of Great Britain. Social and depressing dramas of course. And it's so interesting to watch Bob Shaw in one of his earliest performances. So delightful. A movie whoch the topic is so close to reality.

The author Brian Moore once said he preferred to write about life's failures since like Tolstoy's happy families successes tend to resemble each while failures are always failures in specific ways.

Robert Shaw in the title role as a garrulous Gaelic dreamer definitely qualifies in this adaptation by Moore of his own novel, in which the black & white photography of Manny Wynn vividly evokes the setting of a wintry Montreal.

Providing a good reminder of the time when director Irving Kershner occupied a niche making eclectic independent features long before he ultimately joined the 'A' list, it also has a haunting score by Bernardo Segal who would work with Kershner again on 'Loving'.

Robert Shaw is an Irish immigrant to Canada who's at a low point. Wife Mary Ure (his wife in real life) has had enough. He blarneys his way into an ill-paying job as a proof reader on a newspaper, and blarneys his wife into staying a little longer. But eventually she gives up and leaves. He holds onto his daughter, and gets a job as a delivery man for a diaper service, but his grandiose self-worth keeps getting in his own way.

It's a kitchen-sink drama with fine performances by the leads, and a first opportunity as a leading man for Shaw. He makes the most of it, and director Irvin Kershner gets some fine compositions out of the snowy Quebec location shooting. The story is a constant barrage of low-key misery that it soon becomes wearisome. With Liam Redmond, Tom Haarvey, and Leslie Yeo.