"You have to go careful in this world. You give up one kind of magic, you find you need another."
At least, that's my best recollection of this quote from The Playboys. What does it mean? I don't know, what does anything mean? Does The Playboys mean anything? Sure, it means an engaging film which might be easily missed.
I remember reading a review before going to see this one. There was some criticism of Aidan Quinn's accent, which was considered distracting. All right, Mr. Quinn had at that time not yet totally found his feet despite his known obsession with things Irish, but I can't even say it was distracting. If you factor in that his character was meant to have recently spent time in America, you won't mind it at all.
It's a romance, a slice of Irish life, and a glimpse of the great changes coming in the future. Even in small Irish towns where upstanding citizens who bear children out of wedlock are likely to come home to "Hoor" written on the door and alcoholics forever walk the line of suspicion long after their reform. It's all that and Catholicism, the IRA, black market trading, faith healing, the vanishing life of traveling actors, and Gone with the Wind. Really.
There are so many subplots woven together to form larger subplots that if you like it the first time, you'll be able to enjoy it on different levels for many viewings to come. Yet it isn't really a deep or significant movie. Just three-dimensional. With some beautiful music in the background and some beautiful background all around.
So, who would like this movie? Women. Ireland fanatics. Actors.
Who wouldn't? Boyfriends and husbands who are afraid their significant others will get ideas and want to row boats in the rain then run off to kiss in barns.
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