‘The Van’ Effective As Comedy, Drama

The third installment in Irish novelist Roddy Doyle’s so-called “Tarrytown Trilogy,” Stephen Frears’ “The Van,” follows “The Commitments” and “The Snapper” in exploring similar themes on a common landscape. “The Van” uses unemployed characters played by Colm Meany and Donal O’Kelly to make a comic/dramatic statement both about the pain of “redundancy” and the limits of friendship. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo