SOURCE: O'Toole, Fintan. “Working-Class Dublin on Screen: The Roddy Doyle Films.” Cineaste 24, nos. 2-3 (spring-summer 1999): 36-9.

In the following essay, O'Toole explores recurring themes in Doyle's films, contrasting elements that he contends are purely Irish with themes that hold a more universal appeal.

A smart young man with a head full of foreign notions and an eye for controversy writes a drama about the breakup of an Irish family. He pretends that its material is a realistic vision of Irish life, a mirror held up to the nation, but it is really a fairly obvious adaptation of themes that are current in the world of international entertainment. It shows a husband who is grasping and vicious and threatens to beat his wife, a wife who is a bit of a slut, and other characters who are variously feckless and immoral. The whole thing is awash with alcohol and...