Irish tale of dignity for disabled
An Irish buddy picture about two blokes with severe disabilities, Rory O'Shea Was Here could be called - if one were the cold-hearted, cynical type - Their Left Feet. Brenda Fricker, the mum in My Left Foot, is even on board, in the role of the stern supervisor of Carrigmore, an institution for the disabled. But for all its formulaic uplift and button-pushing emotional moments, the filmmakers behind Rory O'Shea have clearly thrown their hearts into the project. You'd have to be as cold and cruel as the lout in the pub where Rory (James McAvoy) and Michael (Steven Robertson) wheel in to get drunk - a lout who threatens to pummel the handicapped duo - not to get caught up in this corny but convincing drama.
An Irish buddy picture about two blokes with severe disabilities, Rory O'Shea Was Here could be called - if one were the cold-hearted, cynical type - Their Left Feet. Brenda Fricker, the mum in My Left Foot, is even on board, in the role of the stern supervisor of Carrigmore, an institution for the disabled.
But for all its formulaic uplift and button-pushing emotional moments, the filmmakers behind Rory O'Shea have clearly thrown their hearts into the project. You'd have to be as cold and cruel as the lout in the pub where Rory (James McAvoy) and Michael (Steven Robertson) wheel in to get drunk - a lout who threatens to pummel the handicapped duo - not to get caught up in this corny but convincing drama.
Michael, stricken with cerebral palsy that makes his speech all but indecipherable, has spent most of his 20-odd years in a care facility. Unable to communicate, he's treated like a simpleton, as the staff goes about its duties and the other patients stare blankly at the TV, or the walls. Then, one day, in rolls a spiky-haired, smart-alecky 20-year-old with muscular dystrophy - he has the use of a couple of fingers and his mouth, and he uses the latter richly, spewing insults, wisecracks, a waterfall of the lewd and the rude.
Needless to say, Fricker's Eileen doesn't take kindly to Rory O'Shea's disruptive presence in the quiet, clean Carrigmore. But Michael does. The bright, black-humored Rory can understand Michael's garbled speech. He becomes his interpreter, and, then, of course, his friend.
A film about the struggle for independence and equal treatment for people with disabilities, Rory O'Shea, set in a lovely looking Dublin, follows the pair as they fight and scam their way out of Carrigmore into an apartment under the government's Independent Living act. Searching for someone to be their attendant, they come across Siobhan (Romola Garai), a winsome supermarket clerk they manage to persuade to come to work for them.
For a while, the trio are happy as clams. But there are new problems to surmount, relationships that get complicated, feelings that get hurt.
In reality, neither McAvoy nor Robertson is handicapped, but the very fact that this needs to be noted speaks to the actors' thoroughness in the roles; their restricted physical movement, facial mannerisms and speech patterns are more than mere mimicry. Jeffrey Caine's screenplay leavens the mawk and melodrama with cutting wit, and Damien O'Donnell's direction takes the story through its stages with crispness and care.
Rory O'Shea is of a genre that's hard to argue with: It addresses the essential human need for dignity, for freedom, for mastery over one's life.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea
at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
Rory O'Shea Was Here
*** (out of four stars)
Produced by James Flynn and Juanita Wilson, directed by Damien O'Donnell, written by Jeffrey Caine, photography by Peter J. Robertson, music by David Julyan, distributed by Focus Features.
Running time: 1 hour, 44 mins.
Rory O'Shea. . . James McAvoy
Michael Connolly. . . Steven Robertson
Siobhan. . . Romola Garai
Eileen. . . Brenda Fricker
Parent's guide: R (profanity, adult themes)
Playing at: Ritz Five and Ritz Sixteen/NJ