He’s the “mammy” that puts the fun in dysfunctional and now Brendan O’Carroll is making his big-screen debut in Mrs Brown’s Boys: D’Movie.
O’Carroll plays Irish matriarch Agnes Brown, a widow who, having raised five children alone, now spends her days proudly tending to the family-owned fruit and vegetable stall in Dublin’s Moore Street market.
When her beloved stall is threatened by a developer, Agnes inadvertently becomes the face of a community-led rebellion and is soon embroiled in a devious plot involving Russian gangsters, blind ninjas, chickens on horseback and a barrister with a terribly inconvenient case of Tourette’s.
Standing by her side is Agnes’s daughter Cathy (played by O’Carroll’s wife, Jennifer Gibney), sons Dermot, Trevor, Rory and Mark, and loyal best friend Winnie (played by O’Carroll’s sister, Eilish O’Carroll). The star’s real-life son, Danny, and daughter, Fiona, reprise their roles as clueless petty thief Buster Brady and daughter-in-law Maria Brown, while Dermot O’Neill stars as the slightly peculiar but always amusing Granddad Brown.
Directed by Ben Kellett, the film is full of the tongue-in-cheek humour fans have come to expect from O’Carroll’s foul-mouthed character. But while there are chuckle-worthy moments, sometimes the morally ambiguous jokes fall disappointingly flat. It almost feels like O’Carroll is struggling to stretch out the laughs, making me wonder if this particular style of humour is better suited to shorter screen times.
Fans of the TV series will be pleased to see that Kellett has included bloopers in the movie, with some of these funnier than the film itself (particularly those featured in the closing credits).The cast clearly enjoy their more physical roles, and it’s good to see them outside the confines of Agnes’s small house, where much of the series is set. While the situations in which Agnes finds herself often border on ludicrous (even for her), the large-scale dance routines featuring both cast and crew are amusing.
The script (written by O’Carroll) is by no means challenging, but it offers an insight into Agnes’s past and gives Granddad Brown a chance to do something other than sleep on the couch.
Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie doesn’t take itself too seriously and, while it’s not as funny as the television series, it is still worth seeing.
