Irene, played by Michele McLeod, has no friends, and she passionately wants to be a cheer leader. She's fat and there's no chance of that. Irene has a poster of Geena Davis on the ceiling in her room, and she carries on regular conversations with Geena who gives her great comfort and good advice. Irene's classmate, Sarah, played by Aviva Mongello, constantly makes fun of her. She and her boyfriend provoked Irene into an altercation in school one day and the three were suspended from school for two weeks and were assigned to do two weeks community service at an old-age home, which is right next to the school. Irene does not tell her mother she was suspended for two weeks.

When the three arrive at the old age home, they are assigned to removing wall paper from the wall. Irene, however, goes to Charles' room, a newcomer, and asks if he wants help unpacking. Charles, played by Bruce Gay, is morose, and claims he is there to die. Irene tries to cheer him up. Then Irene notices that the residents sit around and watch TV most of the day. She then gets them together to dance. Sarah reports Irene to the manager of the home. The manager tells Irene she has to stop, but she convinces him it is good for the residents. Soon more residents join her dance group, including the chef. Irene then wants her dance group to audition for a TV talent show. But there are so many impediments along the way.

Irene is a young woman with a heart of gold who will always help others and stop at nothing to pursue what is right.

Michele McLeod is outstanding as Irene. Bruce Gay as Charles as Charles is excellent. Aviva Mongello as the spiteful Sarah is also excellent. Geena Davis is wonderful with her bow and arrow. The supporting cast is outstanding.

This would be perfect for the whole family, if it didn't have a few four letter adjectives. I personally think elderly citizens are the best, even when they're cantankerous and grumpy. We ALL have grandparents, and we ALL will become their age, hopefully with some wonderful stories to tell, not to be forgotten in an "old folks home", considered helpless. It's an absolute fact that society stigmatizes both overweight and old age as undesirables. Like becoming homeless, it can happen to you. Change what you don't like but can, accept growing old gracefully, and you're beautiful, whoever you are...

"Don't Talk to Irene" is a wonderful portrayal of the awkwardness of growing up, the journey toward becoming comfortable with yourself as you are, and the power of acceptance, friendship and never giving up on your dreams. The characters represent such a broad spectrum of life stages, societal acceptance, and zest for life. I enjoyed seeing so many different people come together in such an unusual story.

"Irene" was promising from the start; funny moments, quirky characters. I wish I knew what happened, but somewhere around the half hour mark, the swearing and sex references started and grew increasingly worse until I almost turned it off. The F word was prominent throughout followed by the phrase "SMD" (abbreviated), which was uttered by nearly everyone in the movie-even the residents of the senior living facility.
Had this movie not had all of the swearing and disgusting sex talk (references, etc), it could have been great; inspiring even. Irene for the most part is a likeable character who worships Geena Davis (who narrates the movie, talks to Irene and-and appears briefly in the film toward the end) , but even she joined the "sex talk/swearing" crowd eventually.
The thing I hated about this movie is that all of this swearing and sex talk was completely unnecessary. The basic storyline is about a girl who is ridiculed for her weight and her looks but doesn't let it stop her from her dreams. Even Geena Davis mentions in the movie that she'd made a movie called "Earth Girls Are Easy'" and that it didn't ruin her. Kind of an ironic statement given that she chose to do a movie like this. There was no nudity, but seriously, what kind of high school would send kids who were suspended to a senior living facility where the resident are just as bad with the sex talk and swearing as the students?
The music was great and I loved that Geena Davis was the main focus of Irene's quest to follow her dream. I loved that this movie takes place in Canada but the swearing.... Yes, I know I keep going back to that, but it completely ruined what could have been an amazing movie. The previews make it look great, but I ended up fast-forwarding the movie until I got to Gena Davis' scene and then again toward the end.
Watching this movie makes me want a remake and I really hope someone will do it, sans swearing and sex talk, but if that happened, I would guess that the movie would be about fifteen minutes long. Just a terrible, terrible movie with a great message. That is a tragedy because so many young girls could benefit from watching this, but I wouldn't wish this movie on anyone.

I selected this movie based upon the movie trailer; I didn't know much about it. Then after watching it, it started to grow on me. Irene, the title character, uses the imaginary(?) voice of Geena Davis to guide her through the hardships of growing up as an overweight teenaged girl. The movie has a slow build to its finale, and it does have a happy ending, although not the one you think it does. It does have profanity, alcohol stealing, auto theft and a couple of other 'not safe for young girls' things, but with parental supervision, it is worth watching together if you need to instill some motivation into your young daughter if she is floundering in high school.

While this flick does rock some nostalgia, it doesn't bog down the pacing trying to cram it in every conceivable scene. The amusing cheesy awkwardness felt a little like Napolean Dynamite, but I liked it better. It kept a short runtime but honored all the character arcs. I love ALL of the characters, absolutely every one of them. And I will watch this flick with my daughter again and again.

I was in the mood for a light-hearted comedy after going on a true-crime documentary spree. I feared this movie might be way too cheesy, but the pic and title drew me in. I expected to turn this off after 5 minutes, like I usually do. But surprisingly, I enjoyed the whole entire movie! The storyline is cute and the main character is adorable. You really get hooked into seeing what happens to her. What really kept me into this movie was the raunchy funny remarks coming from the old people. I'm so glad they left the bad language in, I was laughing out loud. Thank you for not making this 100% family friendly. Some of us adults need the laughter!

This is seriously a fantastic, well acted, and incredibly written story about a girl that never gives up in spite of the things said and done to her. Everyone would be lucky to be an Irene or be friends with an Irene. I loved everything about this: the clever sarcasm, incredibly real circumstances, and overall message that came across. Best movie I'd seen in a long time.