A Film With Me In It

Black.

It's how we like our stories in Ireland, full of misery and horrible happenings. Our myths are all full of mourning. We have a traditional style of singing designed specifically to sound melancholy and mournful. It should come as no surprise then, that we like our comedy exactly the same way - as black and macabre as possible.

The film opens by setting the scene. Mark Doherty is Mark - quiet, shy and somewhat hapless. He lives with his girlfriend Sally (Amy Huberman) and paraplegic brother David (his real-life, but not paraplegic brother David O'Doherty) in a rundown flat in Dublin. His best friend is alcoholic Pierce (Dylan Moran). Living above them is their landlord Jack (Keith Allen).

The film revels in its black nature, and happily dives into farce once the characters have been established. Kicking things off is the tragic death of David when a chandelier falls on him, crushing him beneath it. This is followed, minutes later, by the death of the landlord in an adjacent room, falling from a stool while changing a lightbulb.

From here, things go from bad to worse, as they only can in a black comedy. To reveal more of the plot would be to spoil it, but suffice to say that things get much, much worse, only getting funnier all the time.

Mark Doherty is very good as hapless Mark, and Dylan Moran has some fantastic moments as Pierce. Cap this off with a great script, strong supporting cast and a hilarious cameo from Jonathan Rhys Myers and you've got a winner on your hands.

I loved this film. It was completely refreshing to see a comedy that truly was hilarious after a slew of very so-so films claiming to belong to the same genre. Seek it out, you won't regret it. A-.