Garage (2007)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Leonard Abrahamson

Writer:

Mark O'Halloran (writer)

Release Date:

5 October 2007 (Ireland)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A tragicomedy set in the world of gas stations in rural Ireland, where over-diligent employee of the garage searches for intimacy during the course of a life-changing summer.

Plot Keywords:

Gas Station | Rural | Alcohol | Horse | Loneliness

Awards:

10 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Pat Shortt	...	Josie
Anne-Marie Duff	...	Carmel
Conor Ryan	...	David
Tommy Fitzgerald	...	Declan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Andrew Bennett	...	Sully
Denis Conway	...	Garda Michael
George Costigan	...	Dan
Tom Hickey	...	Mr. Skerrit
Una Kavanagh	...	Pauline
John Keogh	...	Mr. Gallagher
Suzy Lawlor	...	Louise
Jason Nelligan	...	Lester
Don Wycherley	...	Breffni

Runtime:

Canada:85 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Ireland

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Canada:14A | UK:18 | France:Unrated | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16

Filming Locations:

Ireland

Company:

Element Pictures

Trivia:

Garage has been awarded the Prix Art et Essai by the International Confederation of Art House Cinemas.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Josie is walking home from the chip shop, he is carrying a bag chips but nothing else. In the next shot he now has the chips and the bag of beer cans he bought before leaving the bar.

Movie Connections:

Features The Affair (2006) (V)

A man who may understand more than he wants to

Josie is a man who has been assigned the roles in life of pumping petrol and being the village idiot. He qualifies for the former job by being loyal to his boss, diligent about his work tasks, and friendly to the customers. He qualifies for the latter job because of some sort of mild mental disability that makes him slow to process ideas and not too good at standing up for himself. In fact he's not that stupid - one gets the impression that he was a slow child whom people got into the habit of talking down to, but that he understands more than other people acknowledge or that he even acknowledges himself.

People like Josie are litmus tests for distinguishing bullies from people who are fundamentally decent. The bullies, both teenagers and adults, treat him as if he doesn't even understand the cruel remarks they direct towards him. The people of conscience don't take any satisfaction from mocking someone who can't respond in kind, and they recognise that he is a man capable of being hurt. However their kindness can only go so far: they can't engage with Josie as equals, they can't talk to him about relationships or children or careers, and the weather and the news of the town provide only a minute or two of conversational material.

Even more uncomfortable to watch than his treatment by the bullies is the use people make of him as a confidant of last resort. They unburden their hearts to him in the assumption that he has nothing better to do than listen to them, and expecting from him the kind of unconditional sympathy one would get from a pet dog. There is no reciprocation here: nobody asks him how he's really getting on, even though it's painfully obvious that he is a severely unhappy man with a threadbare cloak of conventional cheeriness, and that he is in no state to take on the burden of other people's unhappiness.

The action of this slow moving film can be said to be driven by the intrusions of the wider world into a rural community. Josie's livelihood is threatened by economic development, and his role as the village idiot is threatened, if that's an appropriate word, by the dilution of the community with "blow ins". Being a village idiot is a cruel and marginal existence for Josie, but it does mean that when he takes a wrong turn, people have a ready explanation for his actions, and can be quite tactful and kind in nudging him back in the right direction. When the village fills up with more and more people who haven't known Josie since birth, his behaviour is in danger of being interpreted in a different way.