I watched this in NetFlix where it was labeled as a "comedy", I needed a few laughs (I'd just watched "Interstellar" the day before, if you have not yet spare yourself READ MY REVIEW on it). But so, about this movie, it was a letdown, the whole family and their lives and attitudes are depressing, one or two moments in which I smiled slightly but that was it. The characters and the story COULD have made for a very funny comedy, but they so wanted to show the lack of perspective of the poor that it never caught on as comedy. The moment when the family hires a stripper for grandma's birthday was simply gross in my view. This is DRAMA, not comedy, and a rather sad tale at that.

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.

Sweet messed up family get their lives thrown into chaos, and are all the better for it. Life's a Breeze, then we are the paper people that it blows around at it's whim. This is a well told story acted perfectly by all of the players. Not a big Hollywood movie, but it certainly just as good. The most beautiful moments of this movie are spent surrounded by rubbish, and gulls. I really Enjoyed the full cast of characters, and was really impressed at the way the country came together in spirit even if just for a small time. Ireland please keep making these great movies. I recommend this movie to anyone from young to old, there is someone in here for you to relate to, and others that you will feel you already know.

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.