"My Brothers," a road trip in every sense of the word

Once in a while a film comes out of Ireland that seems to upend all the ones that came before it.

In 2008 it was the midlands epic "Eden" and the shoestring rock musical "Once" that wowed critics and audiences with their simple but affecting storylines and stellar performances.

Then last year Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s chiller "The Eclipse" seemed to invent its own genre.

In 2010 the drama that looks unlike anything that’s come out of Ireland before is "My Brothers," currently showing at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Written by Irish screenwriter Will Collins, 33, and directed by British man Paul Fraser, 37, it’s a tender story about three young working class Cork brothers who take an impromptu road trip together as they struggle to cope with their father’s imminent death.

As storylines go, that may sound like a grim one, but the performances by the young Irish cast and the assured direction lift this film far above its occasional contrivances to turn it into something deeply affecting.

As the film begins, their father (Don Wycherley) is already close to death and the eldest boy is busy storing his fears in a private journal.

“Soon it will be over,” writes 17-year-old Noel (Timmy Creed). “Soon it will be every man for himself.”

It’s hard to tell if the film is autobiographical or fiction as you’re watching it because it’s so well observed that it feels personal, as if it was the record of an actual life experience replayed in front of your eyes.

But that’s what makes "My Brothers" such an understated marvel. Director Fraser has filled it with so much emotional authenticity that it rings true in every scene.

There are no tricks, there’s no flashy dialogue, there aren’t any colorful characters or quaint scenes to distract you.

Instead "My Brothers" is a sparse but powerful new work, relying on its own elegant simplicity to make its points.

“If Daddy dies on the holidays,” asks the youngest boy Scwally (T.J. Griffin), “do we still get time off from school when we get back?”

It’s the slow motion death of their father and the three boys’ individual responses to it that make for such an interesting film.

Noel, the oldest boy, is already haunted by the inevitable, but Paudie (Paul Courtney), the spirited 12-year-old middle kid, has decided the way to get through it all is by toughing it out and telling jokes (even though there’s real pathos hidden beneath all his playacting).

That leaves Scwally, the 7-year-old Star Wars obsessed kid, who can’t grasp the gravity of the situation that’s facing them all.

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