PIXIE

UK, 2020, 93 minutes, Colour.
Olivia Cooke, Ben Hardy, Daryl Mc Cormack, Colm Meaney, Alec Baldwin, Dylan Moran, Olivia Byrne, Chris Walley, Ned Dennehy, Pat Shortt, Sebastian De Sousa.
Directed by Barnaby Thompson.

For a girl’s name, Pixie sounds rather elf-like, fairy-like. In fact, Pixie here is something of a bewitching witch played with self-confident charm by Olivia Cooke. But this is something of a fairytale – more in the vein of the Brothers Grimm than Hans Christian Andersen!

There is an instant caption: Once Upon a Time in the West, in red. Then, in bold white, is added: Of Ireland. So we know we are in the land of leprechauns and of the IRA.

This is one of those enjoyable adventures where it is probably best to leave some moral sensibilities at the door. It is not meant to be taken literally – or is it? The Irish can spin a yarn and this is what this film is, a complicated yarn with so many twists and turns, so many characters with dubious and double values, and betrayals galore.

And, of course, Ireland has been a Catholic country with Catholic traditions and pedestals for the clergy. These come tumbling down pretty fast, also an indicator of what is to come. Two young robbers gatecrash a clerical meeting, local Irish, visiting clergy from Afghanistan – but, all is definitely not what it looks like, machine guns drawn, and down go the clergy who, in fact, were negotiating a huge drug deal, 15 kilos.

There is a romantic complication between the two men, one Pixie’s former boyfriend, on a long break, as he says, and her new boyfriend. Shooting, taking the bag of drugs, stalking Pixie.

Meanwhile, down at the bar, we are introduced to Frank and Harland (Ben Hardy and Daryl McCormack), old friends, eye on the girls, the drugs, Pixie giving them the come on. Pixie is a photographer and Frank ends up as a model, Harland seeing the threat from the old boyfriend, crashing into him – finishing up with a seeming corpse in the boot, the three on the run.

Meanwhile, there is a complication of Pixie’s father, discovering the dead man in the car, his being a gangster, past IRA gunrunner with Father Hector McGrath? (Alec Baldwin of all people), devoted to his daughters, tolerating his hefty son from a former marriage, but delighting in being a chef. There is also the sadness of the death of his wife, and Pixie visiting her grave.

Which all leads to more shenanigans, dad in pursuit, his hiring of a vicious hitman from IRA days, Seamus (Ned Dennehy), Frank and Harland relying on their friend who works at the airport, Daniel (Chris Walley) who suggests taking the drugs to his main dealer, his uncle (Dylan Moran). Uncle tries to be too smart but doesn’t count on Pixie and a swift knife with a thrust to his hand!

Pixie and co-on the run, eventually caught, finding out the truth about Pixie’s mother’s death. Audiences who were surprised, may be dismayed, by the sacerdotal revelation of drug dealing, there is an even more hyped-up climax, more priests, Father Hector McGrath? in vengeance mood, but always acknowledging God, an arsenal of machine guns, old-style habited nuns (of the severest Irish visages), a huge church shootout, but Pixie and her friends saved by the intervention… More twists than the coastal highways.

All’s well that ends well, so it seems, and for Pixie it is, but as for Frank and Harland…

1. The title? The title? Ireland and fairies, pixies, leprechauns? A malevolent Pixie in this caper?

2. Once upon a Time in the West… Of Ireland? The landscapes, beauty, rugged? The musical score and Irish tones?

3. In the vein of Quentin Tarantino and the Mc Donough brothers? Action, violence, humour, tongue in cheek?

4. The complexities of the plot? Of relationships? Of the past, gunrunning, the IRA, the Catholic Church? Memories, vengeance?

5. Pixie, in herself and ambitions, to go to San Francisco? The relationship with her stepfather? Memories of her mother? Siblings? The antagonism towards her stepbrother? Scenes at home? The later revelation of his vengeance? Her masterminding the crimes and the revenge? His double dealings – and violent comeuppance?

6. The initial robbery? The vengeance and violence? The two friends? Betrayal? Shooting? Colin and Fergus, his vengeance? His relationship with Pixie, Fergus betraying him? Going to the house, bent on revenge? Harland and Frank, friendship, the past, studies, in the bar, led on by Pixie, going to the house, ex going inside, the irony of posing for the photo, Colin arriving, Harland hitting him, hiding him in the boot? On the road with Pixie? To manipulating all the men?

7. The friends looking for the money, the drugs, going to the Presbytery, the meeting of the priests, the visitors from Afghanistan, the revelation, drug dealing and violence, the shootout? The drugs?

8. The significance of Hector Mc Grath, Alec Baldwin in the role, the past and the gunrunning, links with O’ Brien?

9. Dermot O’ Brien, the past, gunrunning, minor gangster, tracking down the young men, the shootings? The drugs? The money? Scenes at home, benevolent stepfather? His going on the search?

10. Frank and Harland, their friend the drug dealer, at the airport? Their plans for distribution, making money? The friend and his reference to his contact? The visit to him, the seeming deal, his smart talk, looking down on Frank and Harland, turning the tables, the violence, his death?

11. The hired killer, tracking them down, old man, his past, cornering them, in the fields, the irony of his death?

12. Pixie and the two men, leading them on, the threesome, their attraction to each other?

13. On the run, across the countryside, crises, near misses?

14. Going to the church, the buildup to the finale, Hector Mc Grath, rogue priest, yet his invocation of religious words prayers? The savage nuns? The other clergy? Pixie and her
friends? The nephew of Father Mc Grath, the past with Pixie, being kept out of the fight? The arrival of the gangs, Dermot? The violence and savagery, yet tongue in cheek, of the
final shootout?

15. The finale, Frank and Harland, pleased at getting the money? Pixie going to San Francisco? And her deceiving them, leaving them a loss?

16. An Irish Tarantinoesque escapade?