Review of White Irish Drinkers (2011) by Manny C — 30 Aug 2011

Writer-director John Gray digs deep into his own life in this heartfelt drama about two brothers growing up in 1975 Brooklyn, in the Bay Ridge area. Gray, whose credits include episodes of CBS' The Ghost Whisperer, isn't dealing in the supernatural, he's dealing in real, unforced intimacy.

Nick Thurston is terrific as Brian Leary, and eighteen-year-old striving artist who must sneak away from his neighborhood so he can paint without discrimination. It mirrors Gray's own young ambition to become a filmmaker. Brian's older brother Danny (Geoff Wigdor, wonderful) is more into small crimes and his more accepted among the neighborhood boys. They're only desire in life is to just party and drink.

But both brothers are united by their relationship with their father Paddy (Stephen Lang of Avatar in his most superb performance to date), a lonshoreman and drinker who has a habit of physically abusing his eldest son and his suffering wife Margaret (Karen Allen of Raiders of The Lost Ark fame, who can do more with her eyes than the script can generate.).

All of the performances are amazing. The actors marvelously find the small details allows painful truths to seep in. Because of a mysterious event in Paddy's past, Brian is spared his abuse, causing Brian to suffer from guilt. He finds solace in Shauna (Leslie Murphy), who also wants to break out of dead-end Brooklyn, and also in Whitey (Peter Riegert, excellent), who gives Brian a job at his movie house. Whitey himself is working on a plan to have The Rolling Stones play for an hour at his theater before they do a show at Madison Square Garden.

Things become tense when Whitey is preparing for his big night and Danny plans to rob Whitey's box office. The movie's center however is the family and their troubles, a remarkable display of how violence can break a family down. Gray directs something truly personal and makes it palpable and heartbreaking. It's a wild emotional ride, and worth it.