I WENT DOWN A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 1998 David N. Butterworth
***1/2 (out of ****)
If Chris Farley had strapped some fake mutton-chop sideburns to each side of his head, spoken with a thick Irish accent, and tried his damnedest to play it straight, he wouldn't have been nearly as funny as Brendan Gleeson in "I Went Down."
Gleeson, who's not dissimilar to the late "Saturday Night Live" alumnus in terms of physical attributes, plays a character named Bunny Kelly in this delightful Irish film. Bunny is sent to County Cork to "retrieve" one Frank Grogan for an Irish gangster called Tom French (well dressed like all good gangsters should be and menacingly portrayed by Tony Doyle). Bunny is to accompany Git Hynes (Peter McDonald), recently released from prison and obligated to Tom for disfiguring one of his cronies.
That Tom French is a mean bollocks. He wants Frank back. And a small matter of some £25,000 that Tom's wife was supposed to have given to Frank. For this he won't break anyone's thumbs. Maybe.
Inventively and engagingly written by Conor McPherson and directed by Paddy Breathnach, "I Went Down" follows the trials and tribulations of Git and Bunny as they knock around peat bogs, dimly-lit pubs, and seedy hostelries trying to stay alive and out of trouble.
McDonald is a newcomer and a promising one at that, but Gleeson has been in over a dozen movies, most recently as Father Bubbles in another film with a very Irish accent on hilarity, "The Butcher Boy." Even if you can't comprehend half of what they're saying, Gleeson and McDonald together make "I Went Down" a trip worth taking.
The film is in many ways reminiscent of another "little" independent feature, 1991's "Highway 61." That film, too, was a road movie and it shares the same kind of wry dialogue and humorous situations as McPherson's tale: whimsical observations on life, carefully-crafted vignettes, deadpan conversational asides, and scenes that'll make you laugh out loud. Witness the episode in which our good-natured protagonists bind Frank (played by Peter Caffrey) to a hotel bed, leaving him with only the TV remote for company.
That sequence alone is on a par with Satan locking himself out of his car in "Highway 61."
What's also charming about "I Went Down" is how the relationship between Buddy and Git develops. Their trip becomes an education for both of them, but the way it's handled is neither sappy nor labored. The only thing in the film which approaches clunkiness is the culminating explanation, via flashbacks, of the relationship between Frank and Tom. It's a little too Hollywood, and what makes "I Went Down" so refreshing is the fact that it rarely panders to traditional conventions of Hollywood gangster movies. Sure it's gritty--make that grubby--but it's also pretty goofy.
Although "I Went Down" emphasizes the comedic elements of dis-organized crime, there are a couple of fairly brutal scenes in keeping with the subject matter. Don't let these deter you, though; "I Went Down" is a little gem. It's only playing at one Philadelphia-area theater--and I suspect it won't be there for long--so catch it while you can.
As Bunny Kelly would say: "No guts, no black pudding."
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu
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