THE SNAPPER
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions
(1993) **1/2 (out of four)
This is one of those artsy foreign Irish comedies (THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN, anyone?) with plenty of wry observations on life and biting humour (It's not spelled "humor" unless it comes from America). Still, even though I enjoyed THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN (a separate review I haven't written yet), I couldn't fully get into this one. The characters here were the loud, obnoxious kind who gather in pubs and gossip about their neighbors. That pretty much sums up the movie, pubs and gossip, not to mention gossip in pubs.
There is a slight plot, though. Young adult Sharon (Tina Kellegher) is pregnant. Her parents aren't happy but they still support her even though she won't tell them who the father is. She won't tell anyone who the father is, not even her friends, whom she regularly meets at the pub to have gossip sessions with. Her father also meets his friends at the pub for some gossip, where he overhears from one friend that another friend said his daughter was "a great ride." That just goes to show you how distorted certain statements can become after being run through the rumour mill. It turns out the friend, when he used the phrase "great ride," was actually talking about the new roller coaster at Six Flags Over Ireland.
Nevertheless, this bloke, older than Sharon's dad, is indeed the father of her unborn child. Sharon is pissed at him for letting the secret get out because now her entire family is ostracized from the community, no one believing her story that the baby's father is a Spanish sailor she met while drunk in a hotel room for one night of torrid animal sex. (That should make the parents feel better about the situation, don't you think?)
There's not much to the movie. Like I said, pubs and gossip about cover it, but it does offer a few memorable lines and biting humour. (Sorry, I don't get enough chances to spell the word that way.) This Irish comedy may not have been my mug of beer, but it did get three-and-a-half stars out of Roger Ebert, comments like "Exceptionally funny!" and "Hilarious!" out of The New York Times and Newsday, not to mention awards at various film festivals. So someone out there likes these European films. THE SNAPPER also pretty much answers the question of why Irish people have drinking problems when it shows Sharon partaking in alcohol several times while pregnant. I'm no Surgeon General, but even I know that's bad for a child's health. Now back to my Hostess fried cherry pie...
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