Best movie of this year hands down!

It is a performances centric movie

Excellent but underrated film

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I went to see this film at the Montreal Irish Film Festival a couple of years ago, and it was simply lovely. I saw it with my mother who is born & raised Irish, and a friend who is a Jewish Montrealer; we all enjoyed it the same. It's the kind of film that crosses all cultural boundaries and tells a great story with fantastic music. If you know the Irish, then all the better. It really gets the Irish character perfectly with all the different people in it. There aren't any stereotypes; all different types of characters co-exist.I wish there were a soundtrack for this, but I've never been able to find one! You'll probably laugh, cry and want to dance when you see this; it's an experience.

Some films may be predictable, with minimal storyline and action sequences and still be a hit. THE BOYS AND GIRL FROM COUNTY CLARE hits that description on target. This is an emerald of a jaunty little Irish tale that thoroughly entertains with a fine cast and superb Irish music and leaves the audience wholly satisfied - AND has a fine social comment! The setting is County Clare where the International Irish Music festival is at hand. For years John-Joe McMahon (Bernard Hill) and his little band have won the ceili (Irish dance music) band competition. Members of his hometown orchestra include young Anne (Andrea Corr) and her unmarried grumpy piano-playing mother Maisie (Charlotte Bradley). Word comes round that John-Joe's long estranged brother Jimmy (Colm Meaney) has a band from Liverpool, a band that includes Liverpudlian types including young and handsome flautist Teddy (Shaun Evans) and is aimed in the direction of the Festival to compete. In fine Irish tradition the two mutually angry brothers try to sabotage each other's appearance, but alas they both come face to face in the competition. With Jimmy's arrival we discover that Maisie's negative outlook comes from the fact that Jimmy is the one who wantonly got her pregnant and Anne is Jimmy's daughter. Maisie is forced to admit to Anne her betrayal of ancestry news and the mother/daughter relationship is strained to the breaking point.Anne and Teddy (naturally) fall for each other and the two of them decide to return to Liverpool after the festival ends with neither's band the winner. This development is threatening to Maisie and she finally confronts Jimmy with her pent up resentment and disappointment. How the young ones cope with their situation and emotions and resolve the problem of distance is the finale of this sweet story and is best left to the viewer to discover.The acting is homogeneously fine with the comedy and drama in fine balance. And oh the music! Director John Irvin has created a little jewel of a film that warms the proverbial cockles of your heart. Grady Harp

This movie was trite and utterly predictable. The two or three "big secrets" of the film were transparent far in advance. I was bored through most of it, and occasionally uncomfortable due to some rather obvious overacting. Even the music, for which I had had high hopes, could not wake this picture up, though admittedly part of this may have been due to the audio in the theater I attended.I wasn't offended at all by the coarseness of some of the dialog and action in the film. I was, however, taken aback that its authors expected me to be entertained by it. There was also more vomiting during this movie than I usually care to see. Most of it on-screen.

I don't recommend this movie. I'ts not a horrible movie by any means, but there's nothing about it that stands out enough to warrant paying for a theater ticket. The tone and pace of the movie reminded me a lot of The Englishman who Went up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. The problem with this film is that it doesn't have anything as charming as Hugh Grant.I did like the two main characters who are brothers, long separated. But the rest of the case wasn't charming enough to hold my interest. Plus, this movie had two vomiting scenes, one of which involved false teeth and was really gross.