My Review of Rialto (2019)

Written by Mark O'Halloran

Directed by Peter Mackie Burns

Colm (to Jay): "There's no lies between us."

Keeping with Pride Month and I'm determined to watch a few more Irish LGBT themed movies and this was one I'd seen before but rewatched late last night to familiarise myself with it again. It's an interesting one.

Mostly because, it's about a man going through a mid life crisis more than discovery his sexuality. Saying that, the latter's also rather prominent too, so to speak. The man in question being dock manager, Colm (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor).

At the start of the movie, we see Colm embark on an encounter with young hustler, Jay (Tom Glynn-Carney). I wouldn't say it's a great encounter as Colm ended up getting bruised and Jay spotted an opportunity for blackmail.

To say that Colm and Jay have a toxic relationship would be underselling it. Jay made it clear that he viewed Colm with a certain amount of disdain while Colm seemed to be blinded by lust with the more time he spent with Jay and money he spent on Jay too.

As for Colm's personal life, he's got a put upon wife named Claire (Monica Dolan), who eventually grew tired of Colm's distant behaviour. Then there was his kids, particularly his son, Shane (Scott Graham) who reacted badly to Colm's confession about Jay while Colm's own mother, Muriel (Deirdre Donnelly) was grieving the death og Colm's father.

Throw in an unhelpful co-worker, Noel (Michael Smiley) and boss Paula (Eileen Walsh), there wasn't much for Colm to enjoy either. He lost his job, his wife, his son and was made a fool out of by Jay. By the end of the movie, Colm didn't really have much to be happy about.

- Jay seemed to hate his mother more than his father and had a daughter named Chloe that Colm briefly met.

- Colm had his own issues with his deceased father and Shane hated Colm throughout the whole movie.

- There's only one sex scene of note between Colm and Jay. Colm's 46 and Jay's 19. 

- Chronology: 2010s Dublin. The movie hit the festivals in 209 before it was released in theatres a year later.

Rialto isn't a love story type of movie but a decent meditation on one man going through a midlife crisis, coming to some terms with his sexuality but also hitting the self destruct button on his life. Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is fantastic but the ending's a bit anticlimactic.

Rating: 7 out of 10