Dir. Paddy Breathnach, 2004, Ireland
Cast: Sean McGinley, Allen Leech, Pat Shortt
Latest in a reasonably long line of small-time crime capers, this Irish comedy about male friendship and dog racing is an amusing romp through the Emerald Isle taking in a few sharp characterisations along the way. Receiving a UK preview at the London Film Festival 2004, it provides good laughs and a few surprises.
Director Paddy Breathnach won't be too familiar to English film fans, with a work history dominated by Irish documentaries and shorts. He is perhaps most well known for I Went Down with Brendan Gleeson and Blowdry with Alan Rickman and Josh Hartnet. In Man About Dog he returns to the small-time gangster world of I Went Down (as opposed to the hairdressing one of Blowdry) and to his native Ireland to give audiences an affectionate send-up of the dog racing community and Ireland's love of a good wager.
Belfast friends Mo Chara (Leech), Scud Murphy (Ciaran Nolan) and Cerebal Paulsy (Tom Murphy) decide to make a quick few pounds racing a greyhound, called Cerberus (in Greek mythology the beast that guards the entrance to Hades). They think they've bought a dud dog so sell him to a family of Travellers. They saddle themselves with a gambling debt of 50 grand and are given one week to find the money. So they steal back the dog who they realise is a champion, and drive him over the border to Ireland 's coursing Mecca, Clonmel, hotly pursued by angry Travellers and crooked dog breeders.
The film is a feast of wonderfully drawn caricatures, from the charmingly menacing dog breeder JP McCallion (McGinley) to the dishevelled band of Travellers headed by greasy, gun-wielding and vest-wearing Fergie (played by Irish comedian Pat Shortt), to our three Belfast anti-heroes, who discover a Viagra-like side-effect to drug trails they partake in when money runs out. In this sense the film descends into a slightly excitable road movie, punctuated by extreme situations that border on the incredible, but are funny nevertheless. Breathnach has also gone for a narrative voiceover by leader of the Belfast boys, Mo Chara, an interesting decision and one that quickly fills in gaps in back story and character as well as lending some weight. Mo Chara is Irish for My Friend and this character is given no other name. He is therefore the universal friend to all, and his narration acts as a kind of general observation on life in addition to a bit of philosophising. The film's main metaphor is gambling, and presents the world as divided between those who lead charmed lives and those who are dogged with bad luck, between those who bet and those who don't. Mo Chara talks us through the underside to this world, where gambling and dog racing attracts and cossets the loser, even celebrates him; a dog meet is "the centre of addiction", where it is cool to be a loser, in the midst of unhealthy toleration.
Allen Leech is convincing as the leader of the gang, but is still a little too self-conscious to carry a film on his own (his last role was as a homosexual fashion student in Cowboys & Angels), and is helped by strong performances from Sean McGinley and Pat Shortt, as well as Ciaran Nolan's put-upon Van Shop owner, who gives the film many of its funniest moments. As well as acute character observation, the laughs mostly come from inventive visual gags, such as training a greyhound on a treadmill or Gerry Adams on a forged £20 note.
The feel of the film is very much outdoors, on location, in the country, using natural daylight. Paddy Breathnach and cinematographer Cian de Buitléar show the beautiful landscape of Ireland from Belfast to Clonmel in fantastic, sweeping gestures and the film can also be seen as a love letter to their native land. The setting, plus the Wacky Races ukulele soundtrack, give Man About Dog a real but light-hearted tone that is in keeping with its undemanding style.
Incisive characterisations and sharp script do not prevent the feeling that we've been here before with the likes of Lock, Stock ., Snatch, Shooting Fish or Intermission, where money-making schemes go disastrously wrong and the little guys take on the pros. Man About Dog does attempt to be something more with its sub-text about the seriousness of gambling and the corruption amongst some of the dog-racing community, and is refreshingly a cross-border film that doesn't focus on religion. Ultimately it's an enjoyable ride through the Irish countryside and an uplifting affirmation of friendship.
Rebecca Kemp
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