I Went Down

[1998, Movie]

I Went Down: Review

A cheerfully morose tour of the other Emerald Isle, the Ireland of rundown pubs, dead-end jobs and nasty lads busting heads in back rooms. Sad-sack Git (Peter McDonald) is fresh from doing a stint in jail in place of his drunken old dad, and is in the midst of a heart-to-heart with best friend Anto (David Wilmot), who stole Git's girl (Antoine Byrne) but feels ever so bad about it. Next thing Git knows, he's rescuing Anto from a bunch of seedy tough guys who answer to local crime boss Mr. French (Tony Doyle), and according to some archaic code of criminal honor, that means he owes Mr. French something. So Git finds himself paired up with portly Bunny Kelly (Brendan Gleeson) -- a flash sort with Elvis sideburns and white shoes -- and sent down to Cork, where they're to collect an old criminal associate named Frank Grogan (Peter Caffrey). Grogan turns out to be a chatty weasel who implies that they're taking him back to be killed because of his affair with Mr. French's wife, and tries to play the reluctant chauffeurs against each other. In the grand tradition of mismatched buddies, it's hate at first sight with Git and Bunny -- Git thinks Bunny is a sociopathic moron, while Bunny thinks Git is a naïve nuisance -- but come to tolerate and even like each other as their ramshackle road trip progresses. The joy of Conor McPherson's richly detailed script lies in the dialogue: Without giving in to national stereotypes, the fact of the matter is that the Irish can make directions to the laundromat sound entertaining, and McDonald and Gleeson's fine performances as the oddly likable no-hopers bring it to vivid, seedy life. --Maitland McDonagh