The Snapper is the second film in Roddy Doyle’s ‘Barrytown Trilogy’ (The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van) and it’s a bit of a slow starter. Described as hilarious, and I guess if you found East is East ‘Hilarious’ then maybe that’s the way you’d see this; but I found that, like East is East, The Snapper is generally pretty amusing, with some really really funny bits and a lot of very dark humour.
With The Snapper you really have to stick with the film; it’s a very slow starter and not very rewarding to watch initially. Indeed, for a good chunk of the film I was seriously thinking ‘have I bought a lemon here’, but it suddenly picks up and really, it is worth it. One slightly disappointing thing is that the camera work is hardly awe-inspiring (it’s really quite pedestrian in style, mind you it’s over 10 years old).
I’m not wildly amazed by it, but for the sake of completeness to the trilogy it’s definately worth a watch, and if you liked East is East, The Commitments and The Van then you’ll probably like The Snapper.
It probably makes more sense if you’re Irish, especially Irish and remembering when the film is set, a relatively poor socially backwards country dominated by catholicism. The weight of the issues in the film were much heavier at the time and a lot of what was supposed to be a big deal in the film probably doesn’t impact on someone with an affluent, non-secular, british upbringing.
Well, no, I could see the impact, but it was more depressing than hilarious for the first 3/4 hr or so. It wasn’t ever hilarious, but the second section definately had black comedy, the first just felt like a painful documentry about…well…Ireland (back then) and the impact of pregnancy out of wedlock.