|
Sensation
| Released |
7 October 2011 |
| Director |
Tom Hall |
Starring
|
Domhnall Gleeson, Luanne Gordon, Patrick Ryan, Kelly Campbell, Owen Roe |
| Writer(s) |
Tom Hall |
| Producer(s) |
Katie Holly, Kieron J. Walsh |
| Origin |
Ireland |
| Running Time |
107 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Rating |
18 |
|
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Not Pretty Woman.
Sensation is a strange piece of work, and actively resists definition. On the surface it tells the story of Donal (Domhnall Gleeson), who hires the services of prostitute Kim (Luanne Gordon) following the death of his father and his inheritance of the family farm. The pair of social outcasts soon find a connection in each other’s company, and embark on a less than legal business venture together. But this description does Sensation little justice, as the film deliberately defies convention.
The off-beat plot moves from dark tragedy through moments of awkward comedy, and frequently falls between the two extremes with mixed results. The real gem in this film is the acting. Gleeson is fantastic as a protagonist who the audience initially has little sympathy for, and only becomes less sympathetic as the film goes on. In fact the film is pretty much without any characters which the audience will really relate to, but the strong performances on show are enough to keep this from becoming a problem. Gleeson really inhabits the role he plays, and by the end his performance leaves you in little doubt that his stoical character has been deeply moved by the events that have befallen him.
At its moral heart this film is a meditation on the position of sex in modern Ireland. The traditional image of the sexually repressed rural farmer is subverted in Donal, who has all the traits of the aging innocent which have been a feature of Irish fiction and poetry in the twentieth century (Patrick Kavanagh’s Great Hunger being one example). However this is subverted in a modern context. Donal reaches out via the internet, meeting a prostitute online and ultimately setting up an internet brothel aimed at farmers.
This raises big social issues such as the role of prostitution, and mostly it fails to address this in any meaningful way. Anybody coming to this expecting any sort of moral to the story will probably be disappointed by the vague and ambiguous conclusion. The ills of society seem to get little time to be properly addressed, and this could well defeat any impact this film intended to have. However Sensation also acknowledges this in its own satirical way – at one point Kim even jokes with Donal that their romance is “not Pretty Woman”.
Having said that, the real strength of Sensation is its lead actor. This is Gleeson’s film, and it proves that he is capable of holding a solid lead role. It proves that he is capable of far more than the bit parts he inhabited so well in the likes of Harry Potter and Never Let Me Go. I just hope somebody in Hollywood takes note of this fact.
- Bernard O’Rourke |
