MRS BROWNS BOYS, D’MOVIE

Ireland, 2014, 100 minutes, Colour.
Brendan O’ Carroll, Jennifer Gibney, Eilish O’ Carroll and many of the O’ Carroll family!
Directed by Ben Kellett.

If you are not already a fan of the very popular television series, Mrs Brown’s Boys, you may have a bit of difficulty in following this cinema version, just who’s who in the Brown family? We are placed in the middle of things, and because of this, there might be not too many converts either.

On the other hand, this reviewer attended the Thursday, 1.00 pm session and there were only two other people in the cinema, an elderly couple, older than the reviewer, who, in fact, chuckled all the way through. converts! (And before the film started, Mrs Brown’s face suddenly appeared on screen – which seemed like a trailer for the film we were actually in there to see – but it was actually herself telling us how much she enjoyed performing the stage version in Australia and that she and the family are coming back: Book Now!)

Mrs Brown is the creation of Brendan O’ Carroll, first writing a screenplay about this Irish widow in the late 1990s, made into a film directed by and starring Angelica Huston, simply called Agnes Browne. O‘ Carroll himself had a number of cameo roles. But then came the television series, Brendan O’ Carroll himself taking the role of Mrs Brown (a bit disconcerting to see photos of the real O’ Carroll with his bald head and seeing him as a martial arts trainer with a fright wig in this film), looking like a latter-day Mrs Doubtfire, dealing with his Grandaddy, the pushy neighbour and the array of children.

It is fair enough to say that the humour is “fairly broad” and that the vocabulary is exceedingly 'fective' (with many expletives including the other four letter F alternative). Much of the humour is slapstick with a lot of pratfalls, especially in the Moore Street market. And there is a lot of spoof of Irish ways and manners, the Browns in their suburb of Dublin but also, for instance, farcical court cases and images of the Catholic Church, (not particularly irreverent). Father Damian is the parish priest, first seen nailing Jesus to a cross outside the church because a holt had come out and the statue of Jesus was hanging by one hand; then in the confessional where Mrs Brown wants to get something of relief from the pressures of life by confessing but her neighbour insists that she has many more sins than Mrs Brown and squashes into the confessional to prove her point, Father Damian fleeing to get some air. There is another priest who performs a funeral and then there is Mrs Brown’s son, appearing rather impassively, wearing a Roman, not really actively involved in anything.

The slim plot is, as often, about greedy developers trying to get rid of poor people, this time ruthless Russians, relying on a corrupt lawyer, to take over the stalls at the market, destroy them and put up some high-rise buildings. Needless to say, they don’t win. Part of the complication is that, because of difficulties generations ago, Mrs Brown has been landed with a tax bill for some millions of dollars. However, an old lady reveals that she has a document proving that the bill was paid. Again, needless to say, the Russians are after the document, Mrs Brown is after the document (leaving a rather well-mannered lawyer, who was afflicted with Tourette’s syndrome, to do a filibuster in the court room until she gets back with the document).

So, it depends on whether you want to see and believe that Brendan O’ Carroll is Mrs Brown (who is not averse to suggesting to the audience, whom she regularly addresses to camera, that she is really a man). The film often makes play of the fact that it is a film, tearing down a backdrop to reveal a real building, Mrs Brown gazing to the sky as the camera zooms up there, telling us how much she likes movies because after falling into the river, she immediately appears dry! Yes, there are some outtakes during the final credits, but a whole lot of them are actually left in the action, actors falling laughing at having to repeat their lines.

The film is very Irish, playing on the old traditions, but it is also a reminder that Ireland has become very multicultural, especially with the character of the Indian stallholder whom they all refer to as being Jamaican - and that that is the richness of Ireland. At the end, Kate Brown, who will inherit the store from her mother, makes a strong, patriotic and sentimental speech in favour of Dublin.

And if this review sounds promising, by all means join the many fans of Mrs Brown and her Boys.

1. The popularity of the television series? Stage performances? Cult status? The appeal, the target audience? Characters, rough and ready, Ireland? The family, the situations? Humour and language?

2. Adapting the series for the cinema, moving the action outside the house? Dublin and the overview of the city, homes, Moore Street, the market, offices and development planning, the courts, the feel of the city? The musical score in the Irish lilt?

3. Mrs Brown, talking to the audience, the devices where she looks to the sky as the camera rises, the breaking of the lens, including the outtakes in the film, emerging from the river dry and her remark about liking the movies? The musical score including classics like the Pink Panther, The Great Escape, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly…?

4. Brendan O’ Carroll and his contribution, the introduction to the film, his writing the screenplay? The opening dream, grandad coming in with a baseball bat, waking, getting ready to go out, going to the market, being joined by the women with their prams, the en masse song and dance routine, the crowds watching, the jubilation? The reprise of this mood at the end, with everyone involved?

5. The characters, Mrs Brown, Brendan O’ Carroll and the cross dressing, and his references to his own masculinity? His performing the role of the martial arts teacher? The neighbours, especially the fussy woman, Kate Brown and her work, the tradition of the market? The Indian whom everyone refers to as Jamaican? Mac and Buster? The other children, the passive priest and his just been present, the range of children? The encounters with Fr Damien, the burial priest, the lawyer for the court, the justices, the gay friends, the contrast with the Russians, their development schemes, having Irwin in their pay?

6. The market, the jokes, the range of customers and fruit and vegetables for sale, visiting Kate, the contrast with her work in the office? The court case, the stealing of a horse, the Justice, the various angles, the lawyers, Buster in the box, his naivete? His later riding the horse into the Justices’ dining room and the Justice telling him where to go? The issue of the huge amount of taxation, Mrs Brown going to the bank, the discussions with the teller, with the lawyer? The lawyer with Tourette’s syndrome, very well mannered but breaking out? The old lady, the crash?

7. The visit to the register office, the girl on the phone, the clashes? Mac and Buster coming, trying to distract but only making even more mess?

8. Irwin, the discussions with the Russians, the attacks on the market? Pursuing the Brown family?

9. The court case, the need to find the document, the background of the old lady who was at the registry office, identifying the day, her being hit by a car? Mrs Brown telling the Tourette’s lawyer to filibuster, his giving the whole history of documents?

10. The meetings for how to raise money for the case? The gay man and is offer to swim the channel, his mis-hearing what was said? Going to the beach, his skimpy costume, going into the water and running away? His later being interviewed in the court? Camp?

11. The role of priests, Fr Damien and his nailing Jesus on to the cross, his going into the confessional, Mrs Brown getting a lift from confession, her friend wanting to prove that she had more sins and Mrs Brown, the crush in the confessional? Fr Damien and his getting out? The picture of the Irish parish priest, not critical, and the priest who conducted the funeral service? And Mrs Brown’s son – and his seeming impassivity?

12. The Russians, their continually intervening, the violence, Mrs Brown and the comeuppance?

13. The desperate quest to get the document, Buster messing it up, Mrs Brown and her desperation? Buster and the horse? Riding into the court? The comeuppance for the Russians? And Irwin trying to escape from the court?

14. The happy ending, Kate’s impassioned speech for Dublin? The Irish traditions, the growing multiculturalism?

15. The down-to-earth kind of humour, Irish style, Irish odd situations?