The Bright Side

It's a trampoline that starts it all. In a fit of rage Ruth (Gemma-Leah Devereux) falls off her brother's one in his backyard and a subsequent trip to the hospital shows up a worrying mass in her breast. Cancer is confirmed and Ruth's indifference to it scares those around her. She's been depressed for years and sees her diagnosis as a guilt free way to leave a life she stopped enjoying a long time ago. To calm familial nerves she agrees to chemotherapy and during treatment meets a group of women in the same situation who make her look at her life differently.

Cancer. Suicide. Depression. Three things that have affected all of us in one way or another. We've been through it or we know someone who has. Life changing, traumatic, devastating, an odd trio to built a film around but director Ruth Meehan working off the memoirs of Anne Gildea has crafted a painfully honest, funny, upsetting and ultimately uplifting look at what we all dread. At times, especially in it's midsection The Bright Side feels a bit drifty, a wee bit aimless but it keeps saving itself with beautifully drawn moments of humanity, kerbside truths spoken through a car window, a filthy Kerry man joke told by the most unlikely candidate in the room and a watery argument where the barbs feel like violence and ever so real. All the best Irish films have had an uncanny ability to make you laugh while punching you in the jaw and The Bright Side carries on that tradition with aplomb.

"Silence is the language of the gods. All else is a poor translation." A quote from a 13th century Persian poet called Rumi. Spoken in a quiet riverside moment between two friends about to become more than that. Silence is the one thing Ruth can't cope with. Stand up comedy is her bread and butter. Cutting wit and brutal truth are her tools. Her day job helps her deal with life, she uses her comedy routines like a visit to a psychiatrist, turning her pain into laughs. She's a wonderful way with words but they aren't masking her pain anymore and a promotional spot on the radio that goes sideways when she's asked a real question lets her know she isn't as strong as she thinks she is. This is too much to deal with alone. She starts to open up, she takes help from her pharmacist Andy (Tom Vaughn Lawlor), she drops the sarcastic front with her chemotherapy acquaintances and beautiful things start to happen.

Gemma-Leah Devereux is fantastic in the part, appearing in every scene, interactions with everyone, some good, some bad, some downright ugly. The understandably thorny Tracy (Siobhan Cullen), the baba of the group. Posh Fiona (Karen Egan), the tower of strength, never anything but 100% positive. Helen (Derbhle Crotty), upset after hiding her light under a bushel for most of her years and now mad to start really living and lovable Roisin (Barbara Brennan), the elder stateswoman of the group, who's religious views rub Ruth up in the earlier scenes. A chemo ward rant against the church giving GLD something to really get her teeth into but it shows off the other sides of her character too. She's genuinely unlikable at times, thoughtless, prone to lashing out at those who care, really going in for the kill. But it will never put you off her, it just makes her feel even more real. The film might be called The Bright Side but it's never afraid to show you the darker sides too.

The Bright Side is in cinemas now. It's very good indeed. Go on, support Irish film.