What to Stream: 'The Snapper' is Very Funny and Very Irish
The Snapper (1993) Netflix
The Basics: Family comedy adapted from Roddy Doyle novel. Stars Colm Meaney, Tina Kellegher, and Ruth McCabe. Directed by Stephen Frears (Philomena)
If You Liked: The Commitments, Local Hero
The Nugget: A very funny — and very Irish — look at how a father deals with an unexpected addition to his family
One of the great forgotten comedies of the 1990s, The Snapper arrived during a very Irish moment in pop culture. Much like The Commitments — another Gaelic-themed film from the same period that mined the work of novelist Roddy Doyle – this domestic charmer about the effects of an unexpected pregnancy on both a tight-knit family and community, doesn’t stint on the local color, broad laughs or heart-tugging drama. Director Frears pulls it off with a light touch that avoids stereotypical knockdown humor or cloying sentimentality. As the loving, if perpetually harried, patriarch of a large, and now growing, brood, Colm Meaney gives what might be his most endearing performance, matched in full by that of Tina Kellegher as his spirited, imprudent daughter. The action centers mostly around home and pub, but somehow a whole world — contained yet bursting with communal feeling — is revealed. It may never have found a wide audience, but The Snapper is as hearty and satisfying as a pint of Guinness.
Photo: @ Everett Collection
