So last night, I'm channel surfing between innings of the Dodger game, and I see a vaguely familiar looking guy crossing a dreary urban street. I think, "Is that the X-Files guy, you know, the guy who just made that movie?" (this is how my mind works sometimes), and then I think "No, that's not him, you're always mixing him up with the Twin Peaks guy, the guy that was in that famously bad Vegas/stripper/dancer movie. It's the Twin Peaks guy". Then I think, "Nah, it's not him - he's too skinny". Then I hear someone shout in a lyrical Dublin brouge, "Hey, Jimmy Rabbitte!" and I know where I am - this is The Commitments!!
I love this movie, and hadn't seen it in five or six years. It is the story of the rise and fall of a Dublin soul bad. The movie is smart and witty about music and dreams and hope. But what I love the most is the almost musical dialog of the characters. Much of this is due to the Irish accents which place an edge or embellishment on every phrase, but the words and sentences themselves are, as the characters would say, "...f***ing brilliant". (You do need to have a certain tolerance for the f-word to enjoy this film. It doesn't go into Scarface territory, but hey, if it's good enough for Dick Cheney...)
I don't know if Dubliners really talk like this outside of Roddy Doyle novels. But I hope so.
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