The Snapper | Colm Meaney, Tina Kellegher

The Snapper | Colm Meaney, Tina Kellegher | "Well done, Sharon! Ya thick *****, ya!"

DVDs:

The Snapper

	The Snapper Colm Meaney, Tina Kellegher Miramax, 2001 average customer review:based on 35 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

One little secret is about to cause a big, big commotion in this hilariously funny hit comedy that has everyone talking! When the oldest daughter of a riotous, close-knit family announces her unexpected pregnancy, everyone wants to know who fathered the "snapper" she's carrying. But the young woman's refusal to reveal anything about her predicament sends the entire town into a tizzy! Critics coast-to-coast praised THE SNAPPER as one of the year's finest and funniest films -- it's sure to deliver nonstop laughs to you!

An old fave

As an accidental mother-to-be myself, this film has come 'round again as a favorite. It's so important to keep a sense of humor in difficult situations ;-)

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"Well done, Sharon! Ya thick *****, ya!"

I adored this movie; I've seen it probably 20 times over the past several years. Colm Meany is very funny as the head of a working class family, the Curleys. One day his eldest daughter Sharon announces to them that she is pregnant. Despite the attempts of her father and friends to learn who the father is, Sharon keeps mum, and eventually we find out why.
The strength of the Curleys is their ability to hold their heads up and laugh when the old gossips and biddies in the town (some of whom, I suspect have written some of these reviews) snub Sharon in the street. Sharon's parents aren't thrilled about the pregnancy at first, but, bottom line, she's their blood, and "**** the neighbors!"
To say this film isn't funny because of unwed pregancy and drinking/smoking during pregnancy is like saying "Catch-22" or "M*A*S*H" weren't funny because they were about war. But those films were only partly about war, and Sharon's pregnancy is just a part of the film.
This film is warm, unsentimental, and funny as hell. I love the Curleys, and you will too. Colm Meany is wonderful as always, and Tina Kellegher is wonderful as Sharon.

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Too Little-Known Slice of Dublin Life (Charming)

"The Snapper," (1993), a comedy directed by Stephen Frear ("My Beautiful Laundrette,") began life as a television movie, but was quickly judged to be worth being better-known: and so was given theatrical release. It was nominated for a Golden Globe, and still deserves to be better-known. The script was written by Irish author Roddy Doyle, based on his own book of the same name. It's the second of his "Barrytown Trilogy," coming after the well-known, successful "The Commitments," and before the equally-funny "The Van." It's set in a working-class Dublin neighborhood, and concerns the Curleys, a large, boisterous family. Now, I'd have to admit I've no first-hand experience of Irish working class families, or neighborhoods, and nobody we meet in this picture is any candidate for sainthood -- neighbors and family are nosy, and can be cruel-- but the picture's funny as all getout. It's got wit to burn, and hearing the way the Irish use the English language adds greatly to its brilliant charm.

It was filmed on location in Dublin, and the locations are fairly accurately used; furthermore, it appears to provide a fairly accurate portrait of the early 90's city. The film stars Colm Meaney (best known as Chief Miles O'Brien on "Star Trek") as Dessie Curley, father of the family. It's almost inevitable: you've got to say this is the role he was born to play, giving him a chance to use acting chops that "Star Trek" sure doesn't. Meaney must have known practically from birth that his "everyman" face didn't give him a shot at romantic leads: but comic leads, ahh now. Rith McCabe nimbly plays his wife; and Tina Kellegher, Sharon, the eldest daughter, who sets off the action by announcing that she's pregnant, and stubbornly refusing to divulge the baby's father. Brendan Gleeson provides sturdy support.

Warning to the politically correct: you may wince at scenes of the pregnant Sharon drinking and smoking heavily, but that's the kind of girl she is, in no danger of turning vegetarian. Loosen your stays, forget your strictures, and enjoy her wit.

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the snapper

colm meaney and helen kellegher are so funny in this film. The family live in an overcrowded home in dublin suburbs. So much is going on all the time. To me this film is a perfect mix of serious and funny and the beauty of having your own copy is, if the Irish accent is difficult to understand you can watch it again and again.It's the best laugh and has aged well, still as funny as it ever was.

Character study of an Irish family in the 1980's

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

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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