Written by Roddy Doyle
Directed by Stephen Frears
Bimbo: "I'm going to kill it."
Larry: "What?"
Bimbo: "I'm going to kill the poxy van."
In the final part of The Barrytown Trilogy and I'll admit that while I do like this movie, it's probably my least favourite of the three. Saying that, it's still a worthy watch.
As someone who's not a big football fan, I also have some flashbacks to how much of a big deal Ireland's performance in the World Cup in 1990 was for the country. It's a bit of a plot for this movie as well.
The focus here was on a baker named Brendan "Bimbo" Reeves (Donal O'Kelly). He lost his job but gained a van and decided to go into business with his friend, Larry (Colm Meaney). The business being to sell fish and chips to the locals. As business ideas went, it was a guaranteed success.
In fact for a good portion of the movie, there was a good team up with Bimbo and Larry as well as the former's daughter, Diane (Neilí Conroy). That was until the van itself got shut down due to poor hygiene, thanks to the rather officious health inspector, Des O'Callaghan.
There's a breakdown in friendship between Bimbo and Larry and there was also a look into the former's marriage to Maggie (Ger Ryan) but again, the focus was largely on Bimbo and Larry. The latter in particular resorted to extreme measures in order to get their friendship back on track.
- Again because of rights issues, Colm Meaney had to play Larry instead of Jimmy Rabbitte Sr.
- Neilí Conroy's brother, Rúaidhrí also appeared as Kevin and Brendan O'Carroll popped up as Weslie.
- Standout music: Frederick Loewe's Wand'rin' Star.
- Chronology: Once again, we're in Barrytown, Dublin, during the 1990 World Cup.
While it is the weakest of The Barrytown Trilogy, I still would recommend watching The Van. It's a good enough closing story to this trilogy of films and both Colm Meaney and Donal O'Kelly are on good form.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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