A breath of fresh Eire
Irish anthology has its charms, but falls short of being magically delicious
The fewer laughs you expect heading into this anthology film from Ireland, the more you’ll enjoy its low-key charms.
Though billed as a comedy, it actually finds its best footing in some of the more dramatic moments of its seven-part structure.
The opening introduces us to Daniel, the affable new hire at the lost and found office of a railway station in a small Irish town.
It’s one of those places where everyone knows everyone, which helps when the subsequent stories have to find ways to interconnect the characters. He’s not overly committed to the job, and it’s not exactly a high-stakes affair, although someone does drop off a baby carriage, complete with baby.
Daniel is played by Liam O Mochain, whose other credits include writer, director, producer, chief fundraiser and publicist.
This was truly a labour of love, with segments researched (they’re inspired by true stories), filmed over six years and released piecemeal at various festivals before being collated as Lost & Found.
It feels churlish to be too hard on the film knowing all this, but the results are rather piecemeal, with an inconsistency of tone that’s explained, if not excused, by the length of filming.
The Proposal, about a man trying to pull off a mile-high engagement during a flight, goes for cheap pratfalls in its climax, while Ticket to Somewhere manages a lovely poignancy, with its tale of an old man who keeps
pestering strangers at the station for money to buy a ticket.
And there are some nice payoffs.
In the opening segment we hear of a local bar owner looking for Mongolian throat singers; later, Grand Opening fleshes out his story, as he tries to reinvent his pub with a different ethnic theme every week.
The lone Asian guy who shows up during its Far East refit just wants a pint of Guinness, but the bar is serving nothing but imports.
Similarly, if foreign imports are what you’re after, Lost & Found might be just your ticket.