At odds: Paul Reiser and Colm Meaney in The Problem With People. Photo / suuplied
At odds: Paul Reiser and Colm Meaney in The Problem With People. Photo / suuplied
Say this for The Problem with People, yet another tale of an American fish out of water in Ireland, you’ll never guess how it ends. Given it’s a story about distant cousins played by one-time Mad About You star Paul Reiser and Irish film fixture Colm Meaney meeting for thefirst time when the New Yorker comes to visit the old country, you might think it would involve the pair of them, given they dominate 95% of this underwhelming comedy. But no, the happily-ever-after feels like the pages from another, more interesting movie were shuffled into this one. It does make up for the complete lack of surprises elsewhere, though the brief homage to the 1983 Bill Forsyth film Local Hero, and its classic Ford Cortina is unexpected, especially given that film was set in Scotland.
Reiser (who co-wrote) plays Barry Gorman, a successful if strangely understaffed New York real estate guy who accepts an invitation to visit Meaney’s Ciaran Gorman, the village undertaker whose dying father wants a long-forgotten family feud – recapped in an animated sequence – reconciled before he shuffles off.
But that leads to another feud over an inheritance between the cousins, and the oirish locals of County Quirk take sides as the story heads to that blindside finale.
Along the way are lessons in Gaelic football and constant scenes of Barry urinating, which are amusing only if you imagine that Reiser agreed with an Irish script consultant that it would be a lot funnier if Barry had more moments having the piss taken out of him.
Rating out of five: ★★½
The Problem with People, directed by Chris Cottam, is in cinemas now.
