UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Executscan Expected more

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

rooprect "Little Miss Sunshine", "Chocolat", maybe even the Japanese masterpiece "Kikujiro", and "Life's a Breeze". These are all excellent films that tell an entertaining story involving 3 generations, focusing mostly on the odd relationship between a 1st generation grandparent figure & a third generation teenager. In each case, the plot isn't what you'd call nail biting suspense, and in fact the stories themselves are pretty mundane. But the payoff is in the interesting views between old & young.By the way, if you haven't read the DVD back cover yet, then DON'T. It uses some phrases which I consider to be major spo!lers. Since the story itself is pretty simple, you'll probably have a better time if you know nothing about it. Let's just say it's about an urban adventure, set in Ireland (Dublin I assume?), involving a family of weirdos.The humor is pretty tame, no real laugh-out-loud zingers, but the entire presentation is so witty and light hearted that you'll probably find yourself with a good smirk planted on your face throughout.A subtle bonus is the way this film shows us the underbelly of Irish society, I'm talking about poor families, garbage dumps (literally), homeless hangouts and other unglamorous facets of life. And yet it doesn't hit you over the head with some preachy social message about it all. The scenes simply provide a contextual backdrop behind the story. Certainly a different approach than your typical glossy Hollywood fare.Although all performances were great, I'd say the show stealer was newcomer Kelly Thornton who was 15 years old during production. Apparently she was discovered while she was walking down the street. Director Lance Daly has a flair for finding "unprofessional" young actors and eliciting the greatest performances out of them. He did the same with his two young leads in his excellent 2008 film "Kisses" about two young runaways living on the streets of Dublin. Here he does the same with his young star, and the result is a genuine performance as only a non-actor can do.If you're a fan of the films I mentioned above, or any coming-of-age comedy dramas like "The Squid and the Whale" or another gem I recently saw called "The Way, Way Back", then don't hesitate to check this out. And recycle your trash! (watch the movie and you'll see what I mean)

The Couchpotatoes I just finished watching this movie and I have to say that it's not always the movies with a high budget that are the best. I enjoyed this Irish dramady. The filming was simple but effective, no need for any spectacular scenes, just day-to-day shots out of the suburbs. All actors did a fine job, especially the grandmother played by Fionnula Flanagan and her grand-daughter Emma played by Kelly Thornton. The search for the missing money, the disbelief of nan's story, the different relationships between the family members all made it a nice movie to watch. There was enough subtle humor to bring a smile on my face every now and then. Certainly worth a watch.

alanhighley Enjoyed this movie immensely. I agree that some scenes were somewhat irrelevant. Pity there is not much bio on Emma on IMDb. Her last part about crediting Colm with finding the mattress is a beautiful act of kindness and clever psychology. I've been to Dublin twice, once in 1958 and again in 2006. The contrast and change between these two years in terms of scruffiness and graffiti is so disappointing. Nevertheless, there are many points in the city's favour and I would like to visit again. Like many Irish films, the dialogue (Irish accent) can be difficult to follow for our American cousins and those who do not have English mother tongue. Finally, I am curious as to what part of the movie was filmed in Sweden and why?

ricky_says_hi I saw a screening of this film in the Irish Film Institute and the only actor I knew in it was Fionnuala Flanagan who played Mrs Mills in The Others. However it was supposed to be good so I went anyway.The film's story is that Flanagan plays the elderly mother to a group of grown-up children that are utterly horrible human beings one way or another. They actually decide to do something nice for their mother and remodel her house while she's out. Unfortunately she reveals that her old mattress that they threw out contained all her life savings - nearly a million. Thus the hunt for the lost mattress begins. Things escalate even further when the youngest son (Pat Shortt) makes an announcement on the radio and it turns into a nationwide sensation.The film's main bad points are that it runs far too long. It's clear that there are several scenes in the film that are there just to pad out the running time. They have nothing really to do with the main plot and if you removed them, they wouldn't affect the film at all. Among these are an extended sequence where the youngest son believes he has won the lottery only to discover the grandmother and granddaughter have fooled him with Sky plus TV. Also a scene where they throw the mother an 80th birthday party complete with a stripper. The scenes are funny but do nothing for the film and they're obvious filler so watching them becomes tiring. You want them to be over so you can go back to the actual plot.The film does have good points, notably in its cast. Flanagan and Shortt work well together as the two main draws. Flanagan is a breath of fresh air from the traditional cranky yet sassy stereotypical Irish old lady. However the best performance from the film is the actress who plays the teenage granddaughter. The girl had very good comic timing and seemed very natural on camera. She's definitely one to watch out for, though hopefully Fair City is out of the question. The rest of the cast were all nice and witty too.The film was well written and well made. I was surprised to find out that some scenes were filmed in Sweden. You'd never be able to tell though. The film's music was also very nice. It really complimented the whole thing and made it an enjoyable experience.So in short it was a nice little well-made film. However it was let down by the obvious padding which came across as lazy writing.