RORY O'SHEA WAS HERE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: foul language, thematic elements

Rated:

Anyone with a family member or friend with problems will know how hard it is to visit them in a rest home. It's that aura that gives Rory O'Shea poignancy, even though it is undermined by absolutely foul language and a few truly heart-wrenchingly sad sequences.

The quiet rest home has never met a man quite like Rory O'Shea (James McAvoy). A paraplegic, he wheels into their life with bleached blonde spikes and enough attitude to give the local grouch a run for his money. With the use of two fingers on his right hand, and enough mouth to go around, he rapidly makes enemies of the staff, who are tired of having to turn off his music in the middle of the night, and friends with Michael (Steven Robertson), the "forgotten" son of a wealthy public official. Michael's speech is so impaired that no one can understand him... except Rory, who shared a room with "someone that would make Michael sound normal." Because Rory can understand what he is saying, Michael latches on to him and the two become inseparable.

Rory has been applying to live on his own for quite some time, but the evaluation board doesn't believe he's responsible enough to make the switch. Michael knows how much Rory wants to be out of home care and applies himself, with the insistence that Rory be allowed to live in as his interpreter. Shortly before this move and right after a wild night on the town, the boys ran into a young woman in a bar who didn't treat them as though they were invalids. Purely by chance, they meet Siobhan (Romala Garai) again... and convince her that she's better off taking care of them than stacking beans in the local supermarket. With limited experience but the willingness to try, Siobhan agrees to give it a go.

There are the customary ups and downs, the colossal fights between room mates, and broken hearts as both boys find themselves somewhat in love with their beautiful attendant. What results is a touching but odd little movie that leaves you wanting to be a better person, but doesn't quite manage to hit all the right notes. I cannot say what about it left me feeling empty, but despite the little triumphs along the way it just didn't groove with me. There are positive aspects about it. Rory is determined not to feel sorry for himself. He wants to be as independent as he can, and to have fun. This involves blackmailing Michael's absentee father to a certain degree to get a good flat and using rest home funds to drink up at the bar, but for the most part he is a good influence on Michael. Siobhan also is essential in making the boys realize that life is about more than what they want.

It is a pity therefore that the script involves such profane language. Rory uses the f-word as often as I blink, along with a half dozen other mild profanities and abuses of Jesus' name. He asks Siobhan on their first meeting to unzip his pants so he can pee. There is some other mild innuendo. It's also implied that Michael is sexually aroused while Siobhan is giving him a sponge bath. Rory teases him about it. One additional irritation is that the actors have such thick accents that I had as much trouble understanding them as I did understanding Michael! After ten minutes of missing half the dialogue, I finally had to turn on the subtitles in order to figure out what was transpiring. It's an interesting little movie but not something so memorable that it changes your life.

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