Abode review – Irish quintet of linked short films burrows deep into stereotypes

2026-03-18 - 11:10

The humour falls flat, the twists are weak, the plotlines are absurd and it’s soaked in booze and gambling. The only thing that saves this film are the actors’ performances Writer-director Liam O Mochain spent more than three years filming this feature, a package of five narratively self-contained shorts set in various parts of Ireland. That either makes him heroically persistent about seeing his vision through or somewhat inept, as there’s no discernible improvement over the course of the film. Every one of these thudding tales is flatly directed and plays like the script was inspired by true stories from Take a Break magazine – although hopefully there’s nothing true about the would-be comical fourth story which (spoiler alert) ends with a woman (Gail Brady) getting locked inside a “smart” oven that’s about to turn itself on. It’s supposed to be funny because her husband (Matthew O’Brien) is so feckless about technology he doesn’t know how to turn the oven off. Because men, geddit? The other instalments are a little better, but only by tiny amounts, much the way one flavour of off-brand crisps might be preferable to another. The first one at least has the always watchable redoubtable character actor Marion O’Dwyer playing Carol, a homeless woman still grieving her dead husband (she listens to his voicemail greeting several times a day). She breaks into a restaurant on Christmas Day to host a feast for her rough-sleeping friends. Similarly, a vignette about Molly (Rosemary Henderson) meeting the son she put up for adoption years ago is passable thanks to competent performances, but the O Henry-esque twist is very weak tea. Continue reading...