Customer Reviews

The Snapper [VHS]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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

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.

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!

This is one of those movies you'd never have known about unless you came across it by accident on cable TV , like I did. I had never heard of it, but was lucky to find it while looking for something to watch on a rainy day off. This movie was one of the funniest, heartwarming films I have ever seen. The family interaction was so true to life, it was like being in my own home growing up. (Catholic Italian - very similar to Irish Catholic in nature). Sometimes the dialogue was a little difficult to follow with the heavy accents; and the conception of the child made you angry at both she and the father - and made you wonder why she chose the path she did. For the little things this movie isn't, it sure earned a place as one of my all time favorites. Colm Meany was the best. This was by far his best performance. The movie was so good, it made me late because I couldn't tear myself away, and even then I had to miss the last 10 minutes or leave my poor teenage daughter waiting for her ride after work. I HAD to buy it just to see the end. I'll be watching this one over and over.

I'm from Dublin myself and grew up around people from backgrounds similar to that featured in The Snapper. It should be noted that this film is set pre-Celtic tiger and more of Dublin was like this tahn is now, however with the wealth divide still evident, you'll find many places like this with characters in the same vein scattered around the city. I was compelled to write a review more in response to some of the negative reviews featured on the site, particularly those discussing Irish stereotypes. To allay your ire, this is what life is like for a lot of people in Ireland, it doesn't take away from the fact that you'll find some of the most gregarious and outgoing people and some of the best friends you'll meet in the drabbest and poorest of places, as you will in the best. In the broadest sense, Ireland went through a long period of self-imposed isolation which resulted in great poverty, what you see in the Snapper is the result of that. I'm actually surprised that any Americans would have enjoyed this (my ignorance perhaps) as the humour is specific and the subject matter concerned with honesty rather than political correctness, it's not sanitised in any sense, which contradicts my perception of what seems to be popular comedy in the United States. The fact is, when you're stuck in a rut that you were born into, and things can't seem to get much worse, you hold your head up and get on with it, and maybe have a laugh along the way.

I've seen this video several times and it never fails to entertain me and make me feel good. My maiden name was Curley and my Mother was going to name me Sharon but named me Cheryl instead because all the girls in the ward were being named Sharon. Although my Dad was not born in Ireland, he was very "Irish" and had many of the same mannerisms of the father in this movie. The father reminds me of my Dad (although he would not have been as understanding). Irish Dads typically idolize their daughters and defend their honor at any cost. This Irish dad was no different.
The antics of the family are typical of a large Irish working class family as is the love you see for the girl as she goes through the painful process of growing up and entering motherhood. Having visited Ireland (to scatter my Dad's ashes), I found the dialect true and understandable (even the cuss words). The pub scenes were authentic as well. All in all, a great movie, somewhat dramatic in its content but a very feel good ending. Can't really understand why anyone would compare it to the Committments as it is a totally different type of movie. I enjoyed that as well.

The old adage about dropping a rock in a pond is true. When 20-year-old Sharon, (Tina Kellegher) gets pregnant, she doesn't want to tell anyone who the father is because he's also the father of Mary, one of her girlfriends and she'd gotten pregnant while drunk.

But, people will talk--and when George (Pat Laffan) brags to his mates what a 'splendid ride' Sharon was, Sharon's father Dessi (Colm Meany) gets word and the fight is on.

The effect of Sharon's pregnancy is like a very big rock being dropped in a very small pond in their small workingclass Dublin neighborhood. Dessi's fighting with the George to the point that Sharon makes up another father to get them to stop. Her girlfriend, who is the daughter of the father of her baby, won't talk to her, etc. There's some danger here--but not the tumult you'd expect from Dublin in the 1980's.

It was somewhat disturbing to me to see Sharon continue to drink even until the end stage of her pregnancy. Some likened this to 'TV reality' in that no one really believed the baby would have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or any kind of damage.

The real character development came from Dessi, the grandfather-to-be. It was startling to see him read a book about women's health and ask Sharon if she wanted him present at the baby's birth--he thought it could be important and had missed all six of his children being born. Of course, the most hilarious scene was when Dessi realized he could do more for his wife!

Probably the funniest moment was when Dessi (who I'd first met as Cmdr O'Brien from Star Trek) was yelling "Red Alert! Red Alert!" as he was hustling Sharon out of the house to have her child.

I loved "The Commitments" so I was somewhat biased for this film when I ordered it. I didn't feel like "The Snapper" lived up to its predecessor.

Also, the video quality of this disk was extremely poor on an HD TV. The dark portions of the film had dreadful artifacting problems.

Warnings:

You need to turn closed captioning on to understand some of the Irish dialogue
Sharon's near rape in the pub parking lot
Sharon continuing to drink while pregnant may strongly effect some viewers

This film is among my Movie Top 10 of all time, and shall not slide from it, ever. The storyline is not much happier than, say, that of The Scarlet Letter... but still, what a wonderful outcome! Colm Meaney is absolutely ingenious as the grumpy but loving father. Tina Kellegher exhibits a brilliant performance as the "star-crossed" young mother-to-be, and all the other actors draw up wonderfully lively characters. In spite of a little bit abrupt ending, the film offers a hilarious picture of the Dublin family and suburb life. It's so human, so charming... An absolute hit in Hungary as well! You've just got to see it!

One of my favorite films of all time. Good comedies are hard to come by these days, but the writing, direction, and performances of this little gem combine to create a movie worth watching again and again. Colm Meaney is at his best as the patriarch of this wacky, Irish family. If you like a movie that is original and a bit offbeat, you'll love "The Snapper."

i absolutly love this movie and I looked for the longest time to find it! I found it on Amazon, and first I didnt think it was going to be the original, its a classic, depicts a dysfunctional family in Inner City Dublin in the late 80's. A MUST SEE.........