Jimmy McMahon (Colm Meaney) leads his traditional Ceili band in Liverpool despite the explosion of the Beatles. Meanwhile back in County Clare, John Joe (Bernard Hill) is sharpening his group to defend their victories at the Irish traditional music competition. Jimmy McMahon returns to County Clare for the competition and does battle with his brother John Joe McMahon.The music is good at times. Colm Meaney and Bernard Hill are solid actors who carry this movie. The other actors aren't as good. Andrea Corr of the band The Corrs does a passable job as the ingénue daughter. Occasionally, there are a few cute jokes, but the drama isn't as good as it should. They dance around the secret for half of the movie. The secret gets a big reveal, but it's only a blip in the otherwise generic movie. Director John Irvin just doesn't have the touch for this material.

If you like Irish music, that is, traditional Irish music, known to us who know, love and play, as sessions, then you'll love this little film. Colm Meaney, Jimmy, and Bernard Hill, Johnjoe are brothers in competition for winning a ceilidh band contest. Jimmy has immigrated and enjoys a modicum of success and Johnjoe has remained at home. The plot is thickened by the presence of Andrea Corr, Anne, who is Jimmy's daughter out of Charlotte Brtadley, Maisie, JohnJoe's piano player. The love interest is sparked by Jimmy's Liverpudlian flautist, Shaun Evans, Teddy, who falls heavily for Anne and were off the races. The dialogue is lively and the shenanigans are rampant. The payoff is fun and the music..., ah, the music. The music is aoibhinn ta gael. Under the wise baton of Fiachra Trench, the music is grand. Too, Andrea Corr of her own group, The Corrs, adds a bit of freshness to the pot with her perky Irish beauty. If you like sessions, you'll love this one. If you don't, well... listen anyway. The music is tops.

I had just finished watching a movie and I was planning either to write about it or to go to sleep once and for all. But then, a beautiful music (got to thank Fiachra Trench for that) arrived to my ears. Never mind, I was about to get up when I saw this girl, this lady; this beautiful woman. I recognized her from somewhere and in less than a minute I remembered her. Andrea Corr, the singer of The Corrs (a group that ironically Fiachra Trench helps musically) and now actress for the third time. She has a trapping screen presence; she's gorgeous and full of joy.The story came next, and it involved what I most love in the whole world: music. But it is not that typical music contest story. There's music all along, and a contest too; but first time screenwriter Nicholas Adams involved another things: love, family and feelings. It's the most charming script, really, in the way it introduces the film's characters, one by one and in the way it deceives us keeping the most predictable secrets hidden until the right moments.We first meet Jimmy (a very acceptable Colm Meaney), playing with his music band. He has many gifted musicians under his direction, including Teddy (an excellent young actor named Shaun Evans), who makes Jimmy because he is fond of modern music and plays that all the time. Then an old man gets up from a bed and walks a little bit. This is John Joe (Bernard Hill, that captain from Titanic now in top form), who lives, we quickly understand, for music. His band is led by Maisie (Charlotte Bradley) in the piano, and Anne, (the character played by Andrea Corr) who has a gift for the violin.Thinking in other movies of this type, the music movies that bring up past moments for the people involved in the contest and other things like that, "The fighting temptations" came to mind. Mainly because it starred Beyoncé Knowles, in what was a vehicle for her, because she promoted her songs and the camera focused her intentionally and constantly. Here, Andrea Corr is another stunning actress inside the ensemble, and if you don't know who she is, you'll enjoy her brilliant portrayal of a messed up teenager (she played a teenage girl with 29 years) who needs someone that guides her way.In comparison with "The fighting temptations", the ending here is different. It is what I was talking about Nicholas Adams' script, very sympathetic. Then the characters are real and we understand them. For example, John Joe says that Jimmy has no rhythm and when we see Jimmy playing alongside his band, his feet are totally out of time. Real are also the characters' personalities, that stick to them in all of their actions. So we laugh because of how stupid some characters are and the opportunities they miss because of the things they do. We get moved in the beautiful love story because we understand life can be like that sometimes and because the chemistry between the actors in undeniable.John Irvin directed passionately and correctly a movie that's for anyone. Anyone who likes music, anyone who likes love, anyone who appreciates family and I forgot, the ending...Probably the most awkwardly pleasant ending I've witnessed in a long time. You'll see what I'm talking about.

I don't recommend this movie. I'ts not a horrible movie by any means, but there's nothing about it that stands out enough to warrant paying for a theater ticket. The tone and pace of the movie reminded me a lot of The Englishman who Went up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. The problem with this film is that it doesn't have anything as charming as Hugh Grant.I did like the two main characters who are brothers, long separated. But the rest of the case wasn't charming enough to hold my interest. Plus, this movie had two vomiting scenes, one of which involved false teeth and was really gross.