THE PLAYBOYS
A film review by George Reilly
Copyright 1992 George Reilly
THE PLAYBOYS is a film directed by Gillies MacKinnon and written by Shane Connaughton. It stars Robin Wright, Aidan Quinn, and Albert Finney.
Tara Maguire (Robin Wright) is a young unwed mother living in a small village in Ireland in 1957. Her state is the cause of much scandal---the parish priest demands from the pulpit that she reveal the name of the father---though she is being courted assiduously by the local police sergeant and others. Tara is defiant and independent, and she withstands local opinion hardily. She wants no man's help in bringing up her child and supports herself by working as a seamstress with her sister and occasionally smuggling goods across the nearby border with Northern Ireland.
Sgt. Brendan Heggarty (Albert Finney) is the unnamed father of the child. The sergeant is a middle-aged recovering alcoholic who has been posted to this small village as a punishment for his former transgressions. Dark, brooding, and jealous, he repels Tara more than he attracts her. He is determined that if he can't have her, no one else will either.
Matters continue in this uneasy fashion until the arrival of the playboys, a troupe of itinerant actors. The last of a waning tradition, now made obsolescent by the arrival of television, the playboys wander from village to village, setting up their tent on the green, where they treat the villagers to their cheesy renditions of OTHELLO, GONE WITH THE WIND, and music-hall songs for a few days before moving on.
Tom (Aidan Quinn) is the advance man for the playboys and also their young male lead. Cocksure and handsome, he attracts women easily, so he takes it as a challenge when he is rebuffed by Tara.
Predictably, Tom and Tara start to fall in love after a while. Sgt. Heggarty, equally predictably, does everything that he can to win Tara for himself. The centre of the plot revolves around the three, Tom and Tara's burgeoning love and Heggarty's ever more determined efforts to destroy Tom, including framing Tom for arson and (wrongly) imprisoning him for being an IRA bomber.
Robin Wright gives a surprisingly good performance as Tara. Wright is best known for playing the title role in "The Princess Bride", but here she proves that she has some talent as well as a pretty face.
Aidan Quinn is also good as a likable rogue. His role is undemanding for the most part, but he plays it well.
Albert Finney gives the most interesting performance as the proud, jealous, driven lover. He is quite believable as a man in pain, tortured by his inner demons and his unachievable love.
Milo O'Shea, as the vain, aging actor-manager of the playboys, is mostly there for comic relief. Niamh Cusack, as Tara's sister Bridget, also gives a good performance.
Many films set in Ireland have an unfortunate tendency to be patronising and pander to stereotypes---leprechauns, drunken brawls in the streets, smiling rogues, and so on. THE PLAYBOYS more or less succeeds in avoiding these temptations. The three leads also succeed in adopting fairly convincing Irish accents.
I liked "The Playboys" and I think you might too.
________________ George V. Reilly GeorgR@microsoft.com (formerly gvr@cs.brown.edu)
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