Product Details

• Actors: Colm Meaney, Tina Kellegher, Ruth McCabe, Eanna MacLiam, Peter Rowen
• Format: PAL
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004R6M3
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #690,003 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Snapper may be the funniest film ever made about an unexpected pregnancy. In adapting the second novel of his popular Barrytown Trilogy, Irish author Roddy Doyle brilliantly captures the hilarious dynamics of a working-class family, the virulent gossip of their nosy Dublin neighbors, and the mixed emotions of a young woman on the verge of single motherhood. Sharon (Tina Kellegher) is the 20-year-old daughter of Dessie (Colm Meaney), and her refusal to name the father of her unborn child turns into an escalating crisis that's as traumatic (especially for Dessie) as it is delightfully amusing. The film was directed for British television by Stephen Frears, but its flawless blend of comedy and drama made it worthy of a theatrical release, landing it on many critics' top 10 lists for 1993. Best known as Chief O'Brien on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Meaney mines gold from the role of his career, and his fatherly love turns The Snapper into a heartwarming charmer with universal appeal. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

A return trip to the Dublin of "The Commitments," and every bit as welcome as the earlier film. The Curley family is in trouble: young Sharon (Tina Kellegher) is going to have a snapper-a baby, that is, conceived after a drunken fumble on a car hood. Sharon knows who the father is, but she won't let on to her friends, let alone to her father (Colm Meaney). It sounds like a drab little tale, but in the hands of director Stephen Frears it becomes a headlong tumble into good humor; he seems as fascinated by his characters as the family is by the new arrival, and the camera scuttles around, tolerantly picking up details. The script is adapted by Roddy Doyle from his own novel, which guarantees a string of firecracker jokes, caustic but never cruel; look out for the bemused parents discovering the joy of sex. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "We all do stupid things when we're drunk, don't we?", December 20, 2004

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Snapper (DVD)

Soon after a wild night at the pub, twenty-year-old Sharon Curley (Tina Kellegher) finds herself expecting a little "snapper" by a man she loathes. Her refusal to name the father sets in motion a family drama involving her three brothers, two sisters, and her parents, along with her employers and all her friends. Kellegher, playing the role as a coarse, earthy, yet remarkably sensible young woman (with the exception of her excessive drinking during her pregnancy) soon discovers who her friends really are, as some people tease and torment her, some make remarks to her siblings, some force her father to take direct action in her defense, and all spread gossip.

Des Curley (Colm Meaney), Sharon's father, shows the whole world in his face, his emotions ranging from outrage toward Sharon for embarrassing the family to tender concern as her time draws near. As the eight-member family trips all over each other emotionally (ironically symbolized in their battles for the one bathroom, often occupied by Sharon), the tensions within the family grow more intense. Widespread speculation about who the father is disrupts the neighborhood, with some hotheads visiting their own brand of justice on the Curleys. The arrival of the baby offers a chance at resolution.

Often very funny and equally often very touching, the film features actors who do not act like actors, appearing to be grounded in the very neighborhood they inhabit in the film. With the pub as social center, we see the characters' lifestyles and mores--their attitudes toward sex and childbirth, their "escapes" from the workday, their daily amusements and sense of humor, and their lack of concern with the dogma of the church.

The second in Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy, after The Commitments, this film like The Van, which follows, features author Roddy Doyle writing his own screenplay, Stephen Frears as director, Oliver Stapleton as cinematographer, and actor Colm Meaney (playing the father Des, here) as the emotional bridge among the characters, appearing in all three films and giving a sense of continuity among them. Set in north Dublin in a lower working class neighborhood where many families spend their whole lives, the film shows the reliance on humor when life might otherwise be too tragic to handle. Mary Whipple

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wickedly funny, November 2, 1999

By 

john thomas - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Snapper [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Based on the second book in Roddy Doyle's Dublin trilogy, The Snapper is a wickedly funny glimpse into the lives of a working class Irish family. The eldest daughter of a large family becomes pregnant and refuses to name the father. Not your traditional comic premise, but in this case it works beautifully. The characters are fully developed and presented in such a manner that you care deeply about them, and experience their pain as well as their joy. Veteran actor Colm Meaney (Star Trek DS9), who appears in the other two films that make up the trilogy (The Commitments and The Van), masterfully carries the story as the father of the unruly brood. He comes across as a good man who tries to do the right thing and loves his family, but is painfully human at every turn. The rest of the cast is mostly unknown but very believable and capable. I highly recommend this film (and the books, too). It may be the closest you ever get to Dublin without actually crossing the Atlantic.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A realistic view into an Irish home., March 18, 2004

By 

Sailoil - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Snapper (DVD)

No other film has ever captured the zeitgeist of Irish life as well as the snapper. Roddy Doyle was teaching in a North Dublin working class school when he wrote this book. Much of the dialoge that you hear in the film is directly out of the mouths of his students.

What you see in this film is as close as an outsider is ever likely to come to an understanding of working class Irish life. The unmarried daughter giving birth accounts for 1 in four of all children born today in Ireland. This is as real a situation as you can have. The language, the wit, the sarcasm and the lifestyle are all iminently recognised by Irish people as being true to daily life.

The bonus of the Snapper is that you get a bellyaching laugh at the same time. There are few films as funny as this.

Absolutely brilliant!