20. The Butcher Boy

At the center of Neil (The Good Thief, The End of the Affair) Jordan’s darkly rich and rewarding The Butcher Boy (which was considered too dark by many back in 1997 and avoided almost unilaterally) is a revelatory performance by newcomer Eamonn Owens as Francie Brady, the troubled butcher boy of the title. Much as Stephen Rea’s silky smooth Irish brogue floods the film’s soundtrack (Rea plays Brady later in life, a small town drunk in an unnamed Irish community in the 1960s, narrating the piece in a voice that deliciously conjures images both porcine and puerile, like those out of Delicatessen or The Tin Drum), so too does Owens command virtually every frame. It's impossible to take your eyes off him. With his crop of carrot-colored hair, ruddy complexion, and overall grubby appearance, Francie Brady is an unlikely hero, refusing to be done in by his alcoholic, trumpet-playing father, his depressive, suicidal mother, or the neighboring, bespectacled monster known as Mrs. Nugent (Fiona Shaw), whose very presence sends Francie in an increasingly agitated downward spiral.

Director Jordan's vivid treatment of Pat McCabe's nightmare novel produces a sometime disturbing comedy littered with surreal touches (Sinéad O'Connor playing the Virgin Mary, for example). It's not as outlandish as it might sound on paper, or as the lack of interest might suggest; instead, this remarkable film focuses on the effects external influences have on the friendship between Francie and his best friend Joe, played by Alan Boyle (schoolboy chums in real life), allowing us to empathize with their plight in the presence of extraordinary behavior. It's bleak and it's black but it's fundamentally very funny. Rea talks us through it beautifully, like a pint of Guinness, and Owens drags us though it admirably, like the surefire talent he is and, in tandem with Jordan's sure hand, theirs are contributions to make The Butcher Boy a film worth savoring. (David N. Butterworth)