Damien O'Donnell makes warm, actor-led comedies about people in difficult circumstances. We rate his feel for a cast, especially in East Is East, but his wish to please can soften material that needs firmer handling.
Fi1m perspective
Om Puri and Linda Bassett make the family comedy in East Is East (1999) worth watching even when the film mishandles its harsher material. Damien O'Donnell gets the laughs and the performances right, but the shifts into domestic violence need more care. We laughed, then felt uneasy about the way the comedy softened that violence. The performances keep us interested without making the problem disappear. This is a director we value for his work with actors, with a reservation about what he asks humour to do.
His collaborators include writer Ayub Khan-Din and cinematographer Brian Tufano, and his approach to stage material draws on kitchen-sink realism. Everyday settings give the comedy somewhere credible to happen without demanding attention for themselves. His stated influences include Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Bill Forsyth, which makes sense for a director drawn to ensemble stories and social observation. In East Is East, that attention to ordinary life helps the family comedy, though it also makes the uncertain handling of violence harder to overlook.
The short 35 Aside (1996) led to the commission for East Is East, his first feature. Heartlands (2002) followed with ordinary lives in northern England; Inside I'm Dancing (2004) made disability and independence the basis of a buddy story. The circumstances change, but the emphasis stays on people trying to make their lives work. There is a clear continuity here, though it leaves the films exposed to much the same risk: warmth being asked to sustain our interest when the storytelling cannot.
That risk appears as thin storytelling in Heartlands and an eagerness to provide uplift in Inside I'm Dancing. Neither cancels out the ability with performers that makes East Is East worth an evening, but both suggest why another direction might suit him. His own wish, expressed in 2004, was clear: "I'd like to do something different now, though, from 'funny and touching'." We can see why. He need not promise us a cheering evening to make us interested in the people on screen.
Biography
Damien O'Donnell is an Irish film director and writer. Born in 1967 in Dublin, he graduated from film school in the city and co-founded the production company ClingFilms.
His feature debut was East Is East (1999), an adaptation of the play that won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. He subsequently directed Heartlands (2002) and Inside I'm Dancing (2004, also known as Rory O'Shea Was Here). O'Donnell has also directed short films, including 35 Aside (1996), television series such as The Savage Eye, and commercials.
