Ballywalter

The Plot: Twentysomething Eileen (Seana Kerslake) never had much luck in life. She makes ends meet by working as a taxi driver in the titular town, while also double-jobbing at a cafe where her big mouth has a tendency to get her into trouble. There’s also pressure at home, where her mother needs her to move out in order to make way for the arrival of Eileen’s impending nephew/niece. She has a regular customer in Shane (Patrick Kielty), a middle-aged sad sack who is trying to deal with his own problems by attending a course on how to be a stand-up comic. She drives him to Belfast each Friday and collects him after his course. As they spend time in the taxi, they get to know each other and find that they have more in common than initially appears…

The Verdict: While Irish cinema is in ruddy health of late, the reality is that making independent films is not an easy task. Many scripts go un-produced and even those that go into production may not get beyond a single festival screening and then disappear into the ether (whatever happened to John Carney’s thriller The Rafters?). It’s a sentiment that first-time director Prasanna Puwanarajah no doubt identifies with, given the complexities of working across two jurisdictions in the time of Covid with his Northern Ireland-set dramedy Ballywalter. It’s a miracle it exists, according to the director. Thankfully, the film itself is a brutally honest but wonderfully warm and engaging affair that depicts two damaged individuals finding common ground in a road movie of sorts where there are as many tears as laughs – sometimes simultaneously.

The real find here is in Stacey Gregg’s rich, multi-layered script, which doesn’t mess about it in establishing its well-worn Irish characters as they trudge through another day. The Northern-Irish Gregg made a name for herself two years ago with the Andrea Riseborough-starring film Here Before – which she both wrote and directed. With Ballywalter, she continues to go from strength-to-strength, establishing herself as a keen observer of the human condition. Eileen and Shane are such well-written characters that they pop off the page with even the most minimal of dialogue. Eileen is in arrested development, drifting through life with only a vague plan of moving to London – which might not change anything anyway. Shane is still processing the break-up of his marriage, trying to cheer himself up by channelling that pain into comedy. With a typically Irish touch, sometimes you just have to laugh at life and the hand it has dealt you. As this unlikely pair form a friendship over their journeys to/from Belfast, it also becomes apparent that there may be something else too.

Puwanarajah’s direction is unassuming and doesn’t try to be overly ambitious with its camerawork and environment. We’re in and around Belfast, but no need to remind audiences of that by showing the Titanic Quarter. Puwanarajah is more interested in focusing on his lead actors, eliciting pitch-perfect performances from both Kerslake (an old hand at this kind of feisty character by now) and surprisingly, comedian and recently-appointed talk-show host Patrick Kielty. Actors have often said that comedy is the hardest thing to do, because it requires intense concentration not to laugh at what’s happening on screen. Kielty’s background serves him well here in the amusing moments (of which there are quite a few bellylaughs), but he also shows a depth of range which might not have been apparent before. He’s genuinely affecting, particularly when Shane finally gets his moment onstage. Puwanarajah carefully navigates this scene with Kielty, moving from sadness to happiness with no visible transition. Kerslake is equally fearless, playing a messy but likeable force-of-nature-character who needs a compass and finds it in Shane.

Ballywalter is a beautifully-observed character piece which mercifully doesn’t go down the obvious path, instead preferring to just rely on the power of human connection. It’s a bittersweet tale of two lost souls on the road with each other, but leaves you smiling through the tears in the back seat. As first features go, this is impressively mature filmmaking from Puwanarajah and a further triumph for Gregg. A miracle after all then.

Rating: 4 / 5

Review by Gareth O’Connor