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Bookmark this pageGuiltrip (1995)
Director: Gerard Stembridge
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Brutal, bleak, full of the bitterness of life, this isn't much fun. But it's an impressive, disturbing glimpse of fear and loathing in a provincial Irish town. Late at night, Tina (Russell) waits for her army corporal husband Liam (Connolly) to return from work. When he finally makes it, a long argument erupts. Each is suspicious of what the other's been up to. They never find out, but we do. Liam's a calculating skirt-chaser; Tina fancies the wares at a hi-fi shop and also an absurdly enthusiastic salesman (Hanly). Juggling flashbacks, writer/director Stembridge masters a difficult structure: unfolding past and present, building up character, counterpoising word and deed, and finally suggesting a ruinously unbalanced relationship that obscures and distorts issues of blame and guilt. More than just a domestic drama, the film's an unflinching picture of communal discord and alienation amid the banalities of small-town life. It's also an indictment of the place of violence in society: the abuse of personal power and the hopelessness of keepingmilitary-bred qualities confined to barracks. An auspicious debut.Author: NB
Cast & crew
Director: Gerard Stembridge
Producer: Ed Guiney
Cast: Andrew Connolly, Jasmine Russell, Peter Hanly, Michelle Houlden, Frankie McCaffert, Pauline McLynn full cast
Duration: 89 mins
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