The Snapper

The Snapper is directed by Stephen Frears and adapted to screenplay by Roddy Doyle from his own novel of the same name. It stars Colm Meaney, Tina Kellegher, Ruth McCabe, Fionnula Murphy and Brendan Gleeson.

The Snapper is the middle part of what became known as Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy (The Commitments and The Van either side of it). The Snapper of the title is a baby expected by young Sharon Curley (Kellegher) when she unexpectedly falls pregnant during a drunken liaison. Refusing to name who the father is, the strain on the large Curley family reaches breaking point, especially when the neighbourhood and so called friends begin to point and judge with malice. Can the Curley family pull through? It's going to need some humour and no end of Irish family grit to do so.

Affectionate realism draped in comedy, The Snapper in Frears' hands unfolds as an original take on the stress caused to a family by an unplanned pregnancy. Initially the film's structure feels bumpy, the blending of family drama with uproariously scripted comedy, but once you settle into it you realise that this is exactly how the Curley family are feeling, how they cope. As we get deeper into the picture, and there is much human depth here, peripheral characters come alive and the relationship between Sharon and her father Des (Meaney) really holds the attention whilst simultaneously tickling the requisite emotional threads.

Impeccably performed (Meaney, Kellegher and McCabe are terrific) and with a great script brought vividly to life by Frears, The Snapper is very much a recommended bowl of comedy drama Irish Stew. 8/10

This is up there the all time great Irish comedy films. From beginning to end this is a riot of a film. It portrays the life of Sharon Curley played by Tina Kellegher. She becomes pregnant after a night on the booze and realises eventually, that the father is the local U-12 soccer coach, who just happens to be older than her father. The gossips soon get the news around and Sharon becomes the joke of the neighbourhood.

This really shows the ups and downs of single motherhood in early nineties Dublin. Colm Meaney is brilliant as Dessie Curley with some memorable quotes and one liners. Also look out for Brendan Gleeson as Lester. Well worth a look.

In the working-class Barrytown, Dublin, Ireland, the happy Curley family is composed by the father Dessie (Colm Meaney), his wife Kay, three sons and three daughters. When the twenty-year old Sharon (Tina Kellegher) discloses to her family that she is pregnant, she refuses to tell the name of the father. Soon Dessie tells the news to his friends in the pub and Sharon discloses also to her three friends in another pub. But when Dessie's friend Lester (Brendan Gleeson) overhears the old George Burgess bragging to his friends in a pub that Sharon is a great f-word, the life of Sharon and her family changes in Barrytown and she learns that she has only one real and best friend, Jackie. And Dessie tries to become a better father and husband than never, learning how to deal with women.

"The Snapper" is an unknown little gem directed by Stephen Frears. The dramatic story of a twenty-year old girl that becomes pregnant from an old man has also funny moments in the life of a working class living in Barrytown. Therefore the drama does not become heavy since there are relief moments. For people that is not native in English like me, the "snapper" in the title is Sharon´s baby. In Brazil, this film was only released on VHS and with a terrible marketing since the genre indicated on the cover by the distributor is comedy, with a photo of Sharon and her friends laughing in the pub. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Grande Família" ("The Great Family")

I, too, began this movie and it had not yet grabbed my attention fifteen minutes into the movie, but I wanted to see it, so I watched. I loved it. I love the plot, the characters and the emotion this movie was able to portray with the need of any "super" special effects. It was a true to heart story, and I laughed (a lot). This movie is one of the most underrated flicks I have ever seen and would recommend it to anyone.

This film is 'deadly'. Colm Meaney was made for the role of the lower class 'Barrytown' Da. Its full of witty dialogue and mad characters. The Commitments comes nowhere near this little gem. Its not surprising that some of the American reviewers were not impressed and called it a depressing film as appposed to a comedy, they probably couldn't understand what was being said or the sheer sarcasm of the characters lines. The fact is that Sharon Curly doesn't really deserve much sympathy, so its also comical how things go so bad on her. Everybody around the world should see this film to garner an opinion.