Quintessentially Irish review – Pierce Brosnan weighs in on scattergun study of Irishness
It features a definition of “the craic” but, frustratingly, this long, meandering documentary about Irishness contains only very small quantities of actual fun. It’s a follow-up from filmmaker Frank Mannion to his 2022 doc Quintessentially British, but feels like a commission from Aer Lingus: something to watch inflight from Boston to Dublin, soothingly bland, relaxingly dull. Though to be fair, Mannion gets a big laugh when he archly asks a business expert: “What is it that brings international business to Ireland. The weather?”
The film is a series of interviews that contain, bizarrely, one or two with people in possession of very famous names but next to no connection to Ireland. Like Usain Bolt, who’s never set foot on Irish soil, but is fond of a pint of Guinness and had an Irish agent. We get a lot of Pierce Brosnan at home in sunny Malibu wearing a green blazer, telling stories that go off on random tangents. (One ends with his wife breastfeeding on a beach in
Mexico next to Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell sunbathing topless.)
Elsewhere, no corner of Irish identity is untouched: James Joyce; the Troubles; how to make a great Irish coffee; the Irish famine; horse racing; Ireland’s rise as a tech hub; Irish mammies; the surprising influence of the Irish in French winemaking; the country’s booming film industry. Thank heavens, though, no U2. There’s a fair bit about “plastic paddies” – descendants of Irish emigrants who grow up misty-eyed and sentimental about the motherland. Cut to the White House and an exasperatingly dull St Patrick’s day press conference at the White House with Joe Biden (“the most Irish president since Kennedy”).
There are in fact one or two thoughtful interviews here. Irish-Nigerian broadcaster Emma Dabiri painfully remembers growing up as the only black girl in school in Dublin. The film also explores the prejudice faced by Irish immigrants to the US and the UK. (I grew up hearing stories about 60s London: the “no Irish” signs and colleagues of my dad at London Underground stations who refused to work with a “mick”.) But mostly, this just feels like a grab bag of interviews, everything thrown into together – a piece about reuniting Ireland with some comedy attempts by foreigners to say unpronounceable Irish names.
• Quintessentially Irish is in UK and Irish cinemas from 26 April and the US from 12 March.
• This article was amended on 24 April 2024 to alter the reference to the Irish famine.