If you enjoy soul music, especially coming from a pack of slum-raised white Irish teenagers, witha bit of comedy thrown in, then you’ll enjoy The Commitments–it’s been one of my favorites, watched over and over, since the initial release in 1991. The soundtrack, much of it provided by the young Irish kids who play the bandmembers, is terrific; I’m truly surprised that more of them didn’t become known as actors or musicians.
Andrew Strong, for example, is the closest thing this film has to a bad guy, he plays the lead singer and is amazingly arrogant but the others put up with him because he can sing soul like no white boy should. Since this came out, he’s made a string of records but never achieved any real success which is too bad because he really does have the voice.
Robert Arkins plays Jimmy Rabbitte, the focal character in this ensemble as the band manager, but this is his first and only acting part as far as I can find. In the movie Arkins is all ideas and energy but doesn’t sing or play, while in real life he’s primarily a singer with his own band.
The movie sort of plays out like the film of an imaginary rock opera album like Tommy or Quadraphenia, if that makes any sense. First are a bunch of scenes with wheeler-dealer Rabbitte gathering the players together, including some very strange blokes that show up for advertised auditions at his house. Most of the selected musicians aren’t much good with their instruments (except the medical student piano player and Strong) except for Joey “The Lips” Fagan, the one older member who’s toured with a long list of great American soul singers, yet the band comes together as tight and nearly professional in a matter of weeks. Rehearsals, kids, are really important, you see.
They play their first gig, a couple of songs at an anti-drug benefit at the church’s community room, and everyone is at the top of the world. Time to introduce some troubles: Fagan, who is twice the age or more of the others, sleeps with two of the three Commitmentettes. Strong pisses everyone off with his unearned arrogance and the drummer so much that he quits. A couple of more gigs are arranged, though, and the overall momentum is upwards; Rabbitte even arranges a nice review in one of the local newspapers. Then comes the night Wilson Pickett is supposed to jam with the band after his own show. And it all falls apart, so quickly that we’re into the epilogue almost before one realizes just what’s happened. Terrifically paced ending unlike so many other films.
Which isn’t too surprising when you remember that the movie is based on a novel by Roddy Doyle, one of the top novelists of the last 25 years, and he co-wrote the script and that the director is Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and, another personal favorite, Bugsy Malone). These guys drop you into a place you’ve never been and show you some great characters going through a true episode.
Note: Doyle wrote two more novels, The Snapper and The Van, which with The Commitments make up his Doylestown Trilogy (referring to the section of Dublin where the people live). Each of them was made into a very good movie, each very different than this one.
Definitely recommended
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