Divorcing Jack (1998)

Black romantic comedy set around the troubled "peace process" and its effect on a cynical Belfast hack.

Director:

David Caffrey

Writers:

Colin Bateman (novel), Colin Bateman (screenplay)

Stars:

David Thewlis, Rachel Griffiths, Jason Isaacs

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Thewlis	...	Dan Starkey
Rachel Griffiths	...	Lee Cooper
Jason Isaacs	...	Cow Pat Keegan
Laura Fraser	...	Margaret
Richard Gant	...	Charles Parker
Laine Megaw	...	Patricia Starkey
Bronagh Gallagher	...	Taxi Driver
Kitty Aldridge	...	Agnes Brinn
Robert Lindsay	...	Michael Brinn
Adam Black	...	Young Starkey
Simon Magill	...	Starkey's Brother
George Shane	...	Woods
Alan McKee	...	Mouse
Brian Devlin	...	Dans' work mate
Sean Caffrey	...	Joe

Storyline

A married drunk hooks up with the ex-girlfriend of a vicious local criminal. He gets booted out of home for his infidelity, has a murderer on his tail, and must try to write the story of his life in order to save his journalism job. He gets help from a stripper dressed as a nun and goes undercover dressed as Shaggy from Scooby Doo. He finds a drinking buddy in an American fellow journalist.

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Plot Keywords:

nun | infidelity | bare breasts | election | prime minister | 

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Genres:

Thriller | Comedy

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Details

Official Sites:

Mosaic Movies

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 October 1998 (UK)

Also Known As:

Elválni Jacktől

Filming Locations:

Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£121,394 (UK) (2 October 1998)

Gross:

£375,657 (UK) (23 October 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Scala Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Dan meets the priest he is seeing doing up his shirt. This is a reference to a scene in the original book which is not in the film.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Dan: [voiceover] When I was 8 years old, I woke up in the middle of the night and found my brother pissing on my typewriter. I decided then and there that there was something wonderful about alcohol.

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Crazy Credits

After the credits roll the taxi driver can be heard screaming her catchphrase: "Fuck away off and die!"

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Rachel Griffiths in Conversation (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Country Friends"
Composed by Richard Gilks

User Reviews

Cutting satire of life in Ulster

This is a good film for those who may be interested to see a realistic depiction of the situation in Northern Ireland. This movie is perhaps better understood and appreciated by Ulster folk, though, as it contains a lot of in-jokes that may go over the heads of viewers who are unfamiliar with our area. We who live here can really relate to the situations depicted in the film, as well as to the satire that is so typical of Bateman's work and which translated rather well to film. I believe this movie is misclassified as a thriller. It is a satire, a black comedy, and the thriller format is just a vehicle. The situations were dead on and hilarious (in a very dark way sometimes), and the accents were quite good, in general, with the exception of Robert Lindsay (Brinn) who sounded fake to my ear. The taxi driver was perhaps one of the most realistic characters in the film, and even though she was only seen a couple of times, she stole those scenes. Well acted, realistic, fast paced and quite a good look at our province.