By TIM WATKIN
(Herald rating: * * * )
This is a strange little movie. Masquerading as a quirky independent with offbeat characters and cuts to microscopic sperm pictures and medical documentaries, it plays it pretty straight. Starting like a comedy, it suddenly gets serious. And it's even got James Nesbitt (Cold
Feet's Adam) as "the most feared and ruthless" paramilitary in Ireland. All very odd.
Eamonn is a sad 24-year-old who hates his job and lives with a mum who nags him to lose his virginity. Worst of all, he's too shy to talk to the woman of his dreams, who works at the local funeral director's.
Then out of the blue, while in the sack, he finds he's got the kind of sperm that could fertilise a stone. He's a sperm superman. A weed with the seed. The last chance for Irish masculinity. As a friend says, he's a one-man service industry in an infertile world. Working five days a week, 10 women a day, he can make his fortune.
But in post-Good Friday agreement Belfast, his unique gift can also make him a secret weapon in the Troubles. Both the Protestants and Catholics want to breed their way to victory at the ballot box, and matching Eamonn with all their infertile couples might just tip the balance. (The little matter of the 18-year delay between birth and voting rights isn't mentioned).
It's around this point that what has been an appealing, good laugh of a movie starts leaping around like a leprechaun. Director Appleton seems to feel that he needs to cross-fertilise the film with a bit of drama and conflict and veers the film off in other directions. What was starting to get too silly suddenly gets too serious and too schmaltzy. The result is more erratic than interesting. An anti-climax, you might say.
Playing Eamonn, Marshall puts in a dedicated, crazy performance as the nervy nerd turned sex machine, and as Rosemary, O'Neill does a good blossoming rose. But you can expect about as much from this movie as you might from a drunken one-night stand. A bit of a romp, but rather unsatisfying.
Cast: Kris Marshall, Tara Lynn O'Neill, James Nesbitt
Director: Dudi Appleton
Rating: M (offensive language, sexual references)
Running time: 93 mins
Screening: Rialto
