Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Robert Arkins | ... | Jimmy Rabbitte | |
Michael Aherne | ... | Steven Clifford | |
Angeline Ball | ... | Imelda Quirke | |
Maria Doyle Kennedy | ... | Natalie Murphy (as Maria Doyle) | |
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Dave Finnegan | ... | Mickah Wallace |
Bronagh Gallagher | ... | Bernie McGloughlin | |
Félim Gormley | ... | Dean Fay | |
Glen Hansard | ... | Outspan Foster | |
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Dick Massey | ... | Billy Mooney |
Johnny Murphy | ... | Joey 'The Lips' Fagan | |
Ken McCluskey | ... | Derek Scully (as Kenneth McCluskey) | |
Andrew Strong | ... | Deco Cuffe | |
Colm Meaney | ... | Mr. Rabbitte | |
Anne Kent | ... | Mrs. Rabbitte | |
Andrea Corr | ... | Sharon Rabbitte |
Funny, musical and occasionally dramatic, this is the story of tumultuous rise and fall of a Dublin Soul band, The Commitments. Managed by Jimmy Rabbitte, an unemployed wheeler and dealer with a vision to create "The Worlds Hardest Working Band". Written by Rockpile
Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) is a small time hustler selling pirated tapes and T-shirts. Outspan Foster (Glen Hansard) and Derek Scully (Ken McCluskey) ask Jimmy to manage their wedding band. Jimmy declares that they need to be a hard working Soul band. He puts an ad in the papers and it's a parade of wrong music. His Elvis loving dad (Colm Meaney) doesn't get it. Sax playing Dean Fay (Félim Gormley) is the first brought into the band. Billy Mooney (Dick Massey) is the drummer. Jimmy gets Natalie Murphy (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Imelda Quirke (Angeline Ball) and Bernie McGloughlin (Bronagh Gallagher) as the backup singers. After watching a drunken Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong) sing at the wedding, he gets him as the lead singer. Joey "The Lips" Fagan (Johnny Murphy) is the womanizing experienced trumpet player who comes up with their name "The Commitments". He hires the volatile Mickah Wallace (Dave Finnegan) as their security.
This is fun. It's great music. The cast is mostly musicians trying their hands at acting. Some of them would become quite interesting. It's based on the first of novelist Roddy Doyle's lower class Barrytown trilogy. It's heart warming and then sadly inevitable. The portrayal of the Irish lower class is one of loving profanity. The one word I would use is life. This movie is full of life. The movie could have ended with something predictable but this way it's poetry.