HEAR MY SONG
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
HEAR MY SONG is a movie directed by Peter Chelsom. It was written by Peter Chelsom and Adrian Dunbar. It stars Ned Beatty, Adrian Dunbar, Cathleen Doyle, Tara Fitzgerald, William Hootkins, David McCallum, and Shirley-Anne Field. It is rated R for brief nudity, mild profanity.
HEAR MY SONG is an Irish (or possibly Anglo-Irish? [actually, it's British -mod]) film that is fresh, charming, funny, sweet, and entertaining. The fact that the story is less than original and holds few, if any, surprises, barely diminishes the appeal of this light-hearted romantic comedy about friendship, loyalty, and obligations that must be paid.
The major character is Mickey O'Neill, played effortlessly and energetically by co-writer Adrian Dunbar. He is operating a slightly bogus night club in an Irish neighborhood of an English city, which logically ought to be Liverpool. His schemes catch up with him and he looses everything, especially his girl and his reputation. To redeem himself in the eyes of his community and especially those of his girl (Tara Fitzgerald) and her mother (Shirley-Ann Field), the still beautiful Miss Dairy Goodness of 1958, Mickey heads for Ireland to track the one man who can make Mickey persona grata, a legendary Irish tenor and tax evader, Josef Locke. (It seems, by the way, that Locke is a real person, who is living peacefully and legally in Ireland today.)
In the film, Locke is played commandingly by veteran American character actor Ned Beatty. Beatty backs off from a full-flown Irish accent, and what he does assay may slip a trifle from time to time. But the performance is fine enough to overlook an occasional lapsus linguae. (I'd be interested in hearing from any Irish about this or any other reaction to the film.) The only problem I have with Beatty's performance is in the area of dubbing the songs. The singing is provided by tenor Vernon Midgley, and it is really wonderful to hear it. However, I never can believe it is coming out of Ned Beatty's all-too familiar face.
There is a wealth of charming character performances in HEAR MY SONG. And the location shots of Irish landscapes are an added attraction. There's a lovely friendship story concerning Mickey and his boyhood friend Fenton (played by a singularly cute and charming actor whose name, alas, I do not have). Mickey says as they part, "What have I done for you?" To which Fenton replies, "Nothing. But's that not the point." There is also a very funny performance by William Hootkins, a man who tries to make people happy by being what they want him to be.
The humor of the film is founded on desperation and the fear of losing one's honor. Mickey is desperate to get back his girl, the girl he was never able to say "I love you" to; Locke has to redeem his promises to the girl's mother. And then there's a police inspector played by David McCallum (best known for his role in THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. as Ilya Kuriakin), who's been waiting for twenty-five years to redeem his promise to arrest the tax invader who saved his life. There are plenty of outrageous gags, handled with style and grace, none more so than one concerning a cow and a very deep well.
I can recommend HEAR MY SONG to just about anyone who isn't holed in WAYNE'S WORLD and has no intention being so (that's my minireview of that one; please do not write to tell me what a geek I am--I happen to be an old fart), but I digress. If you pay full price, you will not feel cheated. In the U.S. it is being distributed by Miramax, something you might want to mention to your local art house manager. This is a charmer.
(In the Seattle area, it is playing at the Seven Gables.)
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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