Man About Dog

A fun but unexceptional cross-border comedy-drama from the director of the superior ‘I Went Down’, concerning a trio of game young hotheads from West Belfast forced to wager all on their own greyhound in the Clonmel races to keep a nasty Mr Big (or is that a big Mr Nasty?) from churning them into dog-meat. The script is so much blarney and ‘blink’; the pleasures lie in the talk, the cheeky, off-hand way Breathnach clobbers the clichés and how he fills the frame with characterful faces. The breezy lead performance of Allan Leech (as the optimistic slaphead Mo) keeps the film nicely light-headed, but it’s Ciaran Nolan as the hapless Scud who steals the acting honours.