Director Peter Yates and actor Albert Finney the team of "The Dresser" back again in a different movie, the nice and cruel "The Run of the Country" an history set in Ireland. Nice film because of the scenery, the cast, the story although it's nothing new and some other things. Cruel film because of the way some things, necessary or not, were told but first let me introduce the story. Danny (Matt Keeslar) is an very innocent teenage who recently lost his mother and has to live with his tough father (Albert Finney) a police inspector who's main interest is to make his son move with a aunt in America where he could study in a good college. Danny is kind of lost in what to do with his life, and tired of deal with the father he moves to the house of his friend Prunty (Anthony Brophy) a very pleasant and funny lad. The rest of the movie is a cliché after a cliché: Danny falls in love for the first time after meeting Annagh (Victoria Smurfit) a rich girl, she got pregnant, they don't know what to do, Danny's father thinks he ruined his life with that and all kinds of things. Now here comes some unusual and unnecessary things. What bothered me in this story about growing up is the way Yates dealt with the subject or perhaps the way writer Shane Connaughton wrote was cruel and excessive to with own material (he wrote the novel and the film). In this drama there's too much deaths (more deaths than in "Goodfellas") and there's nothing in it that explain to us what's the point of all that. 8 funerals: Danny's mother, Danny and Annagh's son, a mouse, a pig recently blessed by Danny in a prank, two Biritsh pilots, a drunk man who was decapitated while sleeping in the forest (it isn't showed but it's actually scary) and Prunty (who has the weirdest death scene in the movie). I mean the story moves well but these things almost made me think that it was a ridiculous and pessimistic film. Very downer. Another unusual scene was when Annagh's parents punished Danny for get involved with her. Sometimes adapt your own novel to the screen needs a better development and some liberties must be taken otherwise it becomes a excessive freak show. Finney's performance was okay, he's always a great actor and let's face it, the 1990's wasn't a memorable decade to him in films. The real good thing here was Matt Keeslar, good actor who haven't got any major role after this (except for "Splendor"). His manners and looks were very believable in his portrayal of a shattered young man trying to find his own way in the world after many bad things happened. Not the best work of Peter Yates but not his worst also (I haven't seen his worst yet, he's a great director). 6/10

"The Run of the Country" fulfills the early-to-mid-20th Century rural mannerism of class, character, and personal struggle after a series of dashed hopes during a passage of life. Disney's old hero worship lingers well in this flick, which in turns hits that image with reality. How a young man becomes a man happens in many ways and this film portrays the farm lad derivative. Boy lives a sad reality, boy thinks he has found solace from sad reality, sad reality returns the rebuff, boy returns to sad reality, and boy pursues new venture despite the sting of sad reality.I liked the mode and standing of the storyline to this film, reading like an old novel one would read from the archives or see in a soap opera drama/adventure. I watched the film like I would any paperback-novel-turned-film but when Victoria Smurfit popped up, I took better notice because I had the sensual hot spot for her since "Ballykissangel" when she replaced my previous interest Dervla Kerwin. The unsung natural beauty was the right filler for Annagh...and call me a pervert for this but to finally see Victoria Smurfit nude after imagining it from only two provocative scenes from "Ballykissangel" fulfilled an old dream, the fulfillment of which gave me reason to pursue viewing the rest of the movie. Much like "Little House on the Prairie" was in the 70's, this Irish variation of a "Little House" 2-part episode is specifically meant for those with the soft heart for country life and times, good and bad, with the specter of then-modern Ireland working into the fabric of the story.

This film was made 5 miles away from where I live (when I'm at home in Ireland) and indeed some parts were filmed in my hometown. I have to say that it is a disappointment, and a slur on Albert Finney's good name. Apart from one or two hot spots, the border is probably the most peaceable part of N.I. Another thing about the film I disliked was that for large portions, the only thing to show that this wasn't set in the 50s was the gardà car. SPOILER ******** And I have never in my life heard of someone being tarred and feathered in this reason - it hasn't happened in the last 50 years at least. No one likes being portrayed as ignorant yokels, and thats all this film does.

This was a disappointment. There's no point in repeating the comments others have made about the dodgy acting. As an Irish person, I can also add that the accents were highly questionable and in some cases just plain wrong. Rites of passage films tend to be pretty formulaic and this one broke no moulds. Nor did it ever intend to.