Opinion
Irish cinema deserves a chance. But often we see extremely positive reviews promising the moon. What happens next is: viewers come out of the movie either slightly or greatly disappointed. Let’s just settle this upfront: a four to five star movie is technically acceptable, has decent acting and a well-plotted story. This is the bare minimum. If any of those elements fails, the others have to be outstanding for a film to remain in the ‘very good’ category.
Just a few
weeks ago, Niall Heery´s Gold received
four stars in The Irish Times.
Heery’s second production (after Small
Engine Repair, 2006) is fine; but the script is not accomplished enough to
be worthy of a very good review. The funny fact is that even that positive review
points out “there’s not a great deal of plot to the piece”. The reviewer had a
job to do, and this wasn't to be too kind.
Going back
a few years, let’s take The Runway, (Ian
Power, 2011). Film Ireland paired it with
The Guard (John
Michael McDonagh, 2011): “between this and The Guard, it
looks like 2011 will be a great year for Irish cinema”. The Runway
didn’t accomplish any of The Guard’s
success in the box office. Even in this review, there are remarks about certain
flaws in the script. The Runway was a
breath of fresh air but again a solid three stars movie, nothing more. It's
understandable a small industry invites self-censoring on the part of critics,
but this shouldn't translate into back patting.
It’s been
seven years since John Carney’s Once hit
Irish cinemas. Carney’s first feature film was considered “an unexpected
treasure” by RTÉ within
weeks of its release. The Irish
Times also gave it a four star rating calling it
"irresistibly appealing". Is Once
an enjoyable and original approach to the musical genre? Yes, definitely. But
Carney’s musical featured two lead actors outside their comfort zone while not
playing music, which is not completely ignored in RTÉ’s review: “Once has wonderfully natural
performances from the two leads. Although musicians first and actors second”. Once presents some continuity and
technical goofs, one of the obvious ones is the drummer looking into the camera
in the studio scene. Carney’s film gained the 'very good' classification with
an okay story, acceptable acting and being technically sufficient, which shouldn’t
have elevated it to the altars of the four and five stars.
We have
mentioned three enjoyable movies, and certainly small victories within an
industry that doesn’t produce twenty feature films every year as per the
information available Irish Film Board website. Picking out names of media giving
away an extra star, ‘the Irish star’ may not be seen as constructive criticism.
But, it needs to be said, a non-reliable review makes the audience jaded about
local cinema and it doesn’t allow for honest feedback to reach the creators.
Partly
because of extremely positive reviews, the audience doesn’t consider Irish
productions a safe choice; let’s not forget going to the movies may be a once a
month occasion for an average family. Over appreciation discredits the critic,
but never mind that, the movie industry is the one that suffers the most. Balanced criticism is the only valid path for
Irish cinema to win a place in the entertainment market, and to gain back the
trust of its audience.
