Bumbling Thugs Make Beguiling Characters In Dark, Irish Comedy

There are only so many ways you can do a buddy crime caper. The nice things about “I Went Down” concern not so much what happens as who it happens to.

Just out of prison, young Git Hynes (Peter McDonald) takes a shady job to avoid displeasing a local mob boss. He ends up working with Bunny Kelly (Brendan Gleeson), a hulking yob whose brutish demeanor masks a loyal (and sometimes friendly) nature.

The two end up stuck between two sides of an Irish crime feud.

The friendship of old partners Tom French (Tony Doyle) and Frank Grogan (Peter Caffrey) has soured, and so Tom hires Git and Bunny to find Frank, who’s now in hiding.

They do so, but not without a bit of trouble, some of it caused by their voluble captive, some of it caused by their inability to work together (at least initially) smoothly, much of it caused by their blundering ways.

The enduring irony is that their relationship, underscored by the problems that both have had in the past with the women in their lives, is what makes “I Went Down” so special. Long after the film’s ostensible mystery is resolved, we’re still left with Git and Bunny, bonded now by mutual trust and dependency.

There is some violence to the film, and much of what is portrayed is graphic, but this is no “Pulp Fiction.” The overall tone is humorous, the rough edges softened some by a kind of Keystone Kop slapstick.

Director Paddy Breathnach, working from a script by Conor McPherson, effectively blends that tone with the lushly green countryside. The result, in contrast to current headlines, is a kind of darkly sweet Irish comedy.

Actors McDonald and Gleeson deserves their share of the credit for the film’s success (although subtitles might have helped translate their thick accents).

McDonald, a Dublin stage actor, makes his movie debut a memorable one; his Git is an inherently decent man struggling mightily just to stay ahead of the game. Gleeson’s Bunny, too, wants to do the right thing, if only the world will let him.

“I Went Down” premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Considering how poorly attended most foreign and art films are in Spokane, the fact that this particular film is playing here at all is a minor miracle.

You can be assured of this: Without support, it won’t be here long.

“I Went Down” *** Locations: Lincoln Heights Cinema Art Credits: Directed by Paddy Breathnach, starring Brendan Gleeson, Peter McDonald, Peter Caffrey, Tony Doyle Running time: 1:47 Rating: R