Period drama 'White Irish Drinkers' is exactly as cliched as it sounds

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on June 03, 2011 at 5:00 AM, updated June 03, 2011 at 9:48 AM

Aside from the rich production values, there aren't a whole lot of surprises in the drama "White Irish Drinkers" -- a movie that offers exactly the kind of bittersweet drama you'd expect from something called "White Irish Drinkers."

0603 white irish drinkers.JPGNick Thurston stars in the period drama 'White Irish Drinkers.'

About a pair of Irish-American brothers brawling their way through Brooklyn, not only is the film filled stem to stern with Irish archetypes, but, from the forced dialogue to the rote performances, it's as predictable and clichéd as green beer on St. Patrick's Day.

There's the hard-headed, short-tempered older brother, Danny Leary (Geoffrey Wigdor), the larcenous ne'er-do-well who lives by his fists and a Saturday night special. Then there's the tender, sweet-faced younger brother, Brian Leary (Nick Thurston), who has a hidden artistic streak and who wants nothing more than to find a way out of the neighborhood.

Their father (Stephen Lang) is a drunken brute. Their mother (Karen Allen) takes it. And their friends are a collection of similar Irish caricatures, long on charm but short on job prospects. None are boxers, at least, but every other type is addressed, right down to the wee neighborhood lass named Shauna on whom Brian sets his twinkling eye.

The film is set in the summer of 1975, a fact with which writer-director John Gray flogs his audience, as he crowbars time reference after time reference into his film, from a disco joke to a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" nod to a mention of the "new" member of the Rolling Stones, Ron Wood.

The promised presence of the Stones themselves flits around the edge of Gray's film, as Brian helps organize a one-night-only concert that he sees as the possible salvation for his struggling neighborhood movie theater. Danny sees it as something else: a huge possible score.

And for the rest of us? It amounts to an exercise in cinematic forgettability.


2 stars, out of 4

Starring: Nick Thurston, Geoffrey Wigdor, Karen Allen, Stephen Lang, Peter Riegert, Leslie Murphy. Director: John Gray. Rating: R, for pervasive language, some sexuality and violence. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. Where: Chalmette Movies.