This comfortingly familiar Irish underdog sports movie deviates for not one single second of its running time from the formula. You can tell exactly where it’s going the moment you catch a glimpse of a rowdy women’s rowing team downing shots to celebrate a rare victory – they don’t have a hope in hell’s chance of making it to the tournament final. It’s a film so predictable that you could probably leave the room for 15 minutes and not miss a beat, but it has a big heart and enough easygoing banter to make it watchable. (The dialogue is Irish, and the English subtitles contain plenty of entertaining Irishisms: “Jesus Christ, I’m not completely fucking banjaxed!”)
Kelly Gough plays Aoife, a successful management consultant who has come back home to small-town Kerry to visit her dad, Bear, (Lorcan Cranitch) after he had a heart attack. (“I almost have to die for you to come,” he says, more resigned than bitter.) Aoife is brittle and emotionally distant with Bear. Then, one evening, down the pub, almost by accident, she joins the local women’s rowing team. But can she steer this scrappy mob – an exhausted mother of three, a failed actor and troubled but gifted teenager – to a stirring victory?
You already know the answer to that. Still, the film is directed with a steady hand by Declan Recks, who sensibly sets as much action in the pub as the rowing boat. The team hasn’t won in years. Under Aoife’s new management, we watch their hopeless practice sessions, the team bonding, a surprise win in the semis and an epic final. It’s gentle going and reasonably engaging, and the family dysfunction theme is nicely underplayed. When Aoife and Bear finally heal old wounds, it’s not with a sentimental speech but on a boat, Bear calmly passing his daughter a Wagon Wheel as a peace offering.