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Hilary Fannin - The Irish Times - Saturday, September 12, 2009

Life in a midlands town - 'Pure Mule' makes a return in a post-boom landscape

Four years ago Eugene O’Brien’s memorably superb series, Pure Mule , rolled over the corpse of a putrefied, drink-heavy fictitious Irish town to examine forensically the psychological temperature of its residents. Now, against the background of the recession, O’Brien has revisited this landscape with Pure Mule: The Last Weekend .

As one central character prepared for emigration and another returned home to “bury her ma and get out of Dodge”, his creations once again revealed their apparently cauterised emotional lives in a town struggling to right itself after the explosion of the boom.

O’Brien’s characterisation is faultless, and his gently reflective script was brilliantly served by director Declan Recks and an outstanding cast, including Garrett Lombard as Scobie, the elfin Charlene McKenna as his former girlfriend Jennifer, and Dawn Bradfield in a beautifully judged performance as Jennifer’s sister, a woman rooted in duty but lightened by intelligence and sensitivity.

Hand-made artisan work of the highest quality; as Scobie might have said, “pure mule”.

(Critics Pick by the reviewers of the Times)

The Common Wounds of a Neglected Marriage

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Published: November 14, 2008

The kitchen-sink drama has fallen out of favor lately, elbowed aside by flashier fare. One welcome corrective to this trend is “Eden,” a picture so modest and minor-key that the emotional bruise it leaves may take days to develop.

Set in an anonymous Irish town where bars and busybodies are the primary sources of information, “Eden” circles the rocky marriage of Billy (Aidan Kelly, heartbreaking) and Breda (Eileen Walsh), a 10-year union that has produced two children and a number of dissatisfactions. As their anniversary celebration looms, Billy — a balding, bored phone company worker — grasps at youth in the form of the fiery Imelda (Sarah Greene), while Breda would just really like to have sex again, preferably some time this century.

Exquisitely tuned to the terrors of approaching middle age, “Eden” takes as its subject the common wounds of the neglected marriage and their all-too-familiar field dressings: the diet and haircut for her, the itchy feet and alcoholic stupor for him. Less gritty than Ken Loach and less quirky than Mike Leigh, the director, Declan Recks (working from a script by Eugene O’Brien, adapting his stage play), sacrifices novelty for emotional honesty, and his actors respond.

“What if that’s all there is?” asks Breda of a friend after recounting an erotic dream. Neither woman has an answer.

Published on November 19, 2008

GO EDEN This portrait of an imploding marriage is remarkable for every reason that counts in a good film: Its emotions are passionate and immediate, yet from frame one we are trusted to understand, free of manipulation, exactly what this husband and wife of 10 years are suffering and thinking. The suspense grows out of their blindness to each other. Billy (Aidan Kelly) is a telephone lineman in the Irish countryside, who, rather than face his wife, prefers to vanish into a pub after work and dote on fond memories of an heroic deed from his youth. Breda (The Magdalene Sisters’ Eileen Walsh) suffers his absences painfully, along with their two kids, and retreats into indolent melancholy, illuminated by a most intense and elaborate sexual fantasy. Written by Eugene O’Brien and directed by Declan Recks, Eden constitutes cinema of a very high order: The use of music is discreet and generally “sourced” by the settings, while the cinematography (by Owen McPolin) is designed to suggest what Billy and Breda emphasize to themselves when they look at the world and each other. Kelly may have the thankless role of the ungrateful husband, especially in relation to the heart-piercing Walsh, but he puts us in constant contact with the suffering being behind his eyes. As Breda gives herself a radiant makeover and Billy fights his compulsive lust for a beautiful teenager, we nonetheless feel these two dreamers’ hopes for each other, even as he risks disgracing himself, and she risks detonating their bond altogether. (Nuart) (F.X. Feeney)