The Mighty Celt (Cinequest)

“If you can’t love a dog, you can’t love nothing.”

The Mighty Celt (2005), which was just released on DVD in the US, is a little treat of a movie that takes place in Ireland. It is the story of a darling young boy (Tyrone McKenna) who doesn’t know his father and trains greyhounds as a paid hobby. Although his dog training boss calls the boy “soft, soft as pie,” you will most certainly fall in love with him instantly. He has that untainted fresh faced appeal that only someone raised away from the tanorexic-ness of Hollywood can possess. (emily)

The film opens with the image of a man throwing a sack of what could easily be puppies into a lake, while a van full of dogs look on and whine. It’s a pretty brutal image that doesn’t accurately set the tone of the movie, but it’s powerful nonetheless.

We then get to see the lovely Gillian Anderson preparing for a date. She runs into her son, Donal (McKenna), on the way out and holds her denim jacket close to her chest in order to hide her cleavage from him. It’s a cute detail and immediately lets us know what kind of mother she is. While she may be the kind of mother that will leave her son home alone without telling him where exactly she is going, she is also the kind of mother who still wants to protect him from too low cut dresses.

This movie belongs to both mother and son. Anderson’s put on accent is flawless and her heartbreaking interpretation of this single mom slowly loosing her optimism is fantastic. McKenna’s lanky frame and sweet face are great accessories to the part which seems to have been written for him. The boy is placed in situations that any other teenager would manipulate into an opportunity for candy and a temper tantrum, but he responds with dignity beyond his age. The way that his character treats these situations is such a relief. He is so accepting of adult mistakes.

So, what type of movie is this? Well, there are a few different threads. There is the single mother whose old friend (Robert Carlyle) returns from war and there is the boy who discovers a winning greyhound. It is a drama and a tragedy.

The two plot lines seem arbitrarily thrown together. Once the boy is in deep enough with training the new dog, he and his mother barely have any scenes together. And the one scene that could have been successfully emotional with the two of them and Carlyle, lasts only a few seconds. It was not until the last scene that I realized which of these plot lines the director wanted this movie to really be about. Either, not enough emphasis was placed on the bigger plotline, or too much emphasis was placed on the smaller plotline, or both.

That being said, I found both plotlines to be rewarding and enjoyable to watch, and I didn’t mind that they were in the same movie. Robert Carlyle enters in the second act as Anderson’s long lost friend, and he completes the trio. I so enjoyed these three actors and their spot on performances that I forgot about the plot issues.

Watching The Mighty Celt is very much like watching a foreign film. You can’t really understand what is happening right off the bat and it all looks very Irish. Plus, the accents are impossible to understand at times. That reason, alone, is why it’s great that this is out on DVD, so that you can rewind to re-listen to what you think are important plot points (pay attention to the one where Anderson is getting put into bed by Carlyle and mumbles something, it’s a crucial plot point). Unfortunately, there is no subtitle option for the movie, so you can’t just put the English subtitles on and be done with it. The DVD also lacks the ability to choose a scene, so make sure you pause if you’re going to come back to it.

If you’re feeling like a little vacay from the overblown Hollywood fares at the box office, The Mighty Celt is a great option. It’s short, sweet and has a nearly unwatched performance by a great American actress. Plus you’ll be able to say “I told you so” and sound knowledgeable when the kid gets crazy famous and you name drop this movie.

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