Róise and Frank (2022)
IMDb meta-data is a runtime of 1 hour and 30 minutes, rated 7.1 by 131 cinematizens.
DNA: Ireland.
Genre: drama.
Verdict: hooray.
Tagline: When the dog takes over control…
In a village in west Ireland near the sea live Róise and Frank, who is Mr Hurling in those parts. But before the film begins, Frank has suddenly died, catching Róise unprepared and leaving her bereft. Her portrayal of grief is relentless and moving. Very purposefully a lurcher (that is a dog) makes its way through the fields, down country roads, and along lanes to her yard where he takes up a watching post. When she notices him, yes it is a him, she is, at first indifferent, then slightly bothered, and later alarmed when he insists on accompanying her grim walks to the bottle shop, and when upon her return, he pushes into the house. She takes fright and shooed him away…she thinks.
This dog is made of sterner stuff and persists and persists. And again once in the house, the mystery begins and ends. The dog takes up the deceased Frank’s chair and when hurling comes on the TV while she mopes in the kitchen with another bottle, the dog stares at the televised hurling game and barks when the home team scores. Just like Frank. His favourite meal is the same as Frank’s. And so it goes.
During one of her mopes, the dog drives her out the house and herds her on a walk to … the vista she and Frank almost always went to after tea (that is dinner to you) on nice evenings. There is more but – spoiler alert – she becomes convinced that this dog is Frank returned to her!
The dog herds a local boy into ever more hurling practice to sharpened his reflexes, hone his eye, and build his sadly lacking confidence.
It is charming blarney and the dog steals the show.
The acting is superb all the way around. Her confused grown son the doctor is, well, confused by her mania. The local pub-bound layabouts are bemused by the insinuation of the dog into village life as the hurling team’s mascot, and the widower neighbour is jealous of her affection for the dog. There is some choral singing to spice it up!
Love the sign that said ‘No Dogs Allowed…Except Frank’ at the hurling pitch.
Not my usual fare but it came up as a choice during the long flight to Honolulu in July, and since I had been reading krimis set in Ireland, I pursued the Irish connection.