Inside I'm Dancing Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)February 3rd, 2005
RORY O'SHEA WAS HERE
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Focus Features
Grade: B+
Directed by: Damien O'Donnell
Written by: Jeffrey Caine, story by Christian O'Reilly Cast: James McAvoy, Steven Robertson, Romola Garai
Screened at: Universal, NYC, 2/1/05
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" meets "The Sea Inside" in Damien O'Donnell's heartfelt comedy-drama written by Jeffrey Caine about a pair of 21-year-olds afflicted with serious disabilities who bond in a home for assisted living and opt to leave to make it on their own. This movie may not have the rambunctious spirits of Milos Forman's classic work that featured Jack Nicholson as the feisty misfit that shook up an asylum for the insane, nor does it evoke the lyricism of the Alejandro Amenabar award-winning film about a quadriplegic's 30-year fight for the right to die. But that's OK. O'Donnell's feature is a smaller work which, while embracing universal truths, has a greater sense of locale, with Peter J. Robertson's camera giving us a broad perspective on Dublin, particularly on the pumped-up scene that allow Irish youth to release their considerable energies.
Christian O'Reilly's story on which the film is based is one of friendship between two people, both severely disabled but in different ways. Rory O'Shea (James McAvoy), a young man whose brashness and spike haircut cover his obvious feelings of vulnerability. He is afflicted with muscular dystrophy, which renders him able to move only two fingers of his right hand. He is, however, most able to give vent to his motor-mouth. The lad he befriends, Michael Connolly (Steven Robertson), has cerebral palsy, which renders his speech virtually unintelligible, though his illness allows him more motor use of his hands than that possessed by his pal. Rory, perhaps tossed out of several homes for assisted living, storms into the nursing home full of wit and venom. Though his caretakers, all women, are nice enough, he wants to live in his own home and convinces Michael to desire the same. Together they appeal to a government-sponsored center for funds and, with some money added by Michael's estranged father Fergus Connolly (Gerard McSorley), they take a pleasant two-bedroom flat not far from their nursing home.
Director O'Donnell states in an interview found in the production notes that he wants his film to be about friendship and only incidentally about disability. The chemistry between the two disabled guys is palpable, bearing evidence of this directorial vision, Rory's ebullience helping to bring out the shy Michael. Trouble develops between the two when they both fall in love with their young and pretty helper, Siobhan (Romola Garai), whom they hire to assist them. While Siobhan likes both the young men and enjoys working with them, she obviously cannot return the romantic love that they feel. The heartbreak felt by Michael and Rory is almost painful to watch. Any in the audience who have been victims of unrequited love (and who hasn't?) can empathize with their pain.
It's difficult to imagine anyone's leaving the theater without a greater understanding of paralytic disabilities, not only with the difficulty that the afflicted have with simply surviving but with the pain the disabled must feel in being unable to evoke romantic passion from the healthy.
Rated R. 104 minutes. © 2005 by Harvey Karten
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