Into the West

Screenwriter Jim Sheridan follows My Left Foot and The Field with a soppy tale of life among the Travellers. In his Dublin tower block, a broken man since the death of his wife, one time Traveller king Papa Riley (Byrne) is swayed from his determination to give his sons (Conroy and Fitzgerald) a conventional home when Grandpa Ward (Kelly) returns from his travels, bringing fanciful tales and a white horse which is lodged in the cramped flat. The authorities take a predictably dim view of this, but in confiscating the horse, provide both father and sons with a new lease of life. But the film lapses into tired whimsy when the boys masquerade as lawless cowboys. It's hard to share their vision of the west of Ireland as America's Western frontier, and impossible to perceive any danger from the uniformed incompetents in pursuit.