DVD & BluRay

AN IRISH ANGEL Miracle Media; Cert 15; On Digital

Back in the day, they used to label films centred on family trials and tribulations as ‘kitchen sink dramas’, and inevitably they centred on humble working class abodes, because presumably posh folk don’t do washing up.

I guess this modest Irish film falls loosely under that category, but it did win Best Film at the World Film Festival at Cannes in 2023. The mixture of Irish whimsical humour and straight-laced (by today’s standards anyway) attitudes to morality, at least makes a change, if you fancy streaming something other than Marvel superheroes saving the world again, or yet another cop series.

The setting is Portrush in Northern Ireland, a pleasantly oldfashioned seaside town as I recall from a hectic visit to the country in the name of duty once, where teenage schoolgirl Aine (Niamh James - pictured) is dithering over how to tell her mum Margaret (Amanda Doherty) the news that she’s pregnant (and strange dreams involving Jesus are no help).

Her mum is unlikely to welcome the news with great joy, although Aine’s canny grandmother Agnes (Katy Meehan) already suspects as much. Aine’s best pal Leo (Todd Bell) offers to help pay for an abortion, but she’s conflicted about a termination.

While all this serious stuff is going on, Leo’s getting involved in his crooked brother’s harebrained plan to rob a local gangster, and Margaret gets caught up in a strike by domestic workers. Just as you might be thinking it’s all quite cosy, despite the central character’s little problem, tragedy is looming large, and somewhat spoils the mood.