Review: Get Up And Go – The Stars of Love/Hate Shine in Dublin Comedy
Dublin can often be a mandatory bohemia. Few people from around the world come here to make it, not like they do in New York or London, at any rate. If you’re young it often feels like a holding area for future emigrants or somewhere people return to, defeated, after failing to make it overseas. Combine this with a rich drinking culture and fuck all decent jobs and you create something that isn’t a party town but a session town. This film happens in that Dublin.
Get Up and Go captures a feeling of place and time in a way that, at times, is very honest. At other times the film veers a little too close to common movie tropes for comfort.
Our lead, Colin, (Killian Murphy) is enlisted by an old friend and terrible human being, Alex, (Peter Coonan) on a quest to raise cash for an urgent ferry trip to England to avoid a pregnant girlfriend. In little over a day and night they check off various Dublin landmarks such as The Globe, The Fumbally and The Screen on their journey. It’s fun watching the pair drift about fucking everything up.
It’s a version of Dublin where everything feels like a sidestreet. It’s also, jarringly, a world where getting a standup slot at the International Bar could be a big break and where the archetypal nice guy obsesses forlornly over the girl who isn’t interested. There’s a few ideas and moments that occur throughout that feel oddly Hollywood or clichéd.
They aren’t enough to drag the film off the rails, however. It still feels, at it’s roots, well observed and very funny. I’d watch Peter Coonan read the phonebook and he’s great at playing a completely charming sack of shit. Gemma Lee Devereux also does well, given that her character takes an unexpected turn into melodrama at one point.
Overall this isn’t Withnail and I but it is good, messy fun. If you’ve ever struggled to remember the name of a cocktail that you’ve found yourself drinking on a rainy Wednesday, this film will resonate.
Get Up and Go is in selected cinemas from Friday 1st May. Check out the trailer below:
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Feature Image Credit: Film Ireland
Article Image Credit: Wildcard Distribution
