The Damo and Ivor movie is the latest in a looooong line of TV shows that have become films. It's also the latest in a looooong line of tv shows that should have stayed as TV shows. Some stories are best left as 25 minute chunks and this is one of them. But it's not without it's good points.
The titular duo are a pair of twin brothers who have been reunited after a lifetime spent apart. One grew up in posh part of South Dublin and the other in a rough area of North Dublin.They both now live with their Granny (Grano) on the North side. Their initial differences have been overcome and they've grown quite close. But Ivor (posh fella) is troubled. He wants to find his mam and his other long lost brother John Joe. One day he sees a clue to John Joe's whereabouts and decides to track him down and use this as a stepping stone to finding his mam. Damo has other ideas though.
Damo And Ivor is a very odd mish mash of a film. It's packed full of the kind of sex and drug jokes, wanking gags and crudity that defined teenage comedies like American Pie and Road Trip at the start of the century. As such it feels painfully dated, creaky and cringeworthy. A very slight story is padded out nonsensically for the first hour of the film and just when you feel the will to live starting to ebb from your body it somehow rallies in the last twenty minutes and becomes something genuinely affecting and heartfelt. It's bizarre. I'm not sure quite how it happens but I found myself rapidly moving from cringing at a jellyfish/urine joke that felt old in 1997 when Friends did it to nearly starting to cry in the space of 10 minutes. It's an impressive turnaround that almost saves the film. That first hour though. Oh it's bad. And it will put you off ham sandwiches forever.
The TV show felt fresh and edgy. At 25 minutes or so a pop there was no time for padding and it moved like a bullet. It was fun and funny and it's darting between the different social classes added a nice commentary on 21st century Ireland. That to and fro is missing from the film and makes it feel instantly stale. Then you have supporting characters like Spuddy, Tracey and Sarah Jane who are crowbarred into the film and serving no purpose at all. I know it would have been odd to leave them out but at least they could have been given something to do rather than sitting in the background with a bag of cans. Ruth McCabe as Grano is fun as always and gives the film it's emotional core. Star Andy Quirke does good work and carries the film on his shoulders playing 3 parts all impressively different from one another. John Joe is a new creation for this film and is one that a lot of people will find problematic.
One story strand will piss people off and feels like it was written to do exactly that. It's something you would have seen in a Carry On film in the 1970's if they had made a film over here. It's a recycling of stereotypes that just does not belong in a modern day film. It ends in a heartfelt way but still feels like the writers having their cake and eating it too. "It's alright to laugh because it all works out well in the end." No. That said it does provide the film with one of its few laugh out loud moments during a misunderstanding outside a hospital. Yes I'm well aware of the hypocrisy of that last sentence btw.
Damo And Ivor:The Movie is not the worst Irish film I've seen (Man About Dog, always) but it's far, far from the best. It's packed full of lazy dated comedy and feels insanely padded at times. But fans of the show will feel a genuine hit of emotion near the end and if this is the last we see of the brothers it's not such a bad way to finish.
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