Robert Arkins is persuasive as a man certain he can get everybody organised. His Jimmy Rabbitte in The Commitments has the comic timing to make that confidence funny, even when it threatens to exhaust everyone nearby.
Fi1m perspective
Jimmy Rabbitte wants to be heard, and Robert Arkins makes the eagerness hard to resist in The Commitments (1991). Playing the manager assembling a soul band, he gives Jimmy enough confidence to make getting everybody together seem possible, and enough insistence to make it tiring. We laughed at his enthusiasm because Arkins makes it so easy to imagine being exhausted by him. It is a warm, funny performance with properly controlled comic timing.
Director Alan Parker gives that enthusiasm something to push against. Andrew Strong, Angeline Ball and Maria Doyle Kennedy help ensure that the ensemble never seems to be there simply to endorse Jimmy’s plans. Arkins works well among them because his eagerness belongs to a group in which listening is in shorter supply than the wish to speak. The film does short-change some characters, and its polish occasionally softens the roughness we want from it. Even so, the pleasure of the performers coming together is considerable.
Arkins came to the film as a professional musician without acting experience, and auditioned seven times before Parker cast him. He was initially considered for Deco Cuffe; Jimmy, the non-musician manager, became his defining part. That casting puts his familiarity with bands to useful work without simply asking him to play a musician. We can believe that he knows how these people behave, which makes their scramble to be heard funnier.
Arkins returned primarily to music after The Commitments, with occasional acting work rather than a sustained run of screen roles. His later appearances include the lead part of Matt Malone in The Comeback (2018), but Jimmy remains the performance on which our recommendation rests. We would welcome another part that made such good use of his comic persistence. Start with Parker’s film, and watch how Arkins keeps enthusiasm funny without making the enthusiast contemptible.
Biography
Robert Arkins is an Irish musician and actor. He is best known for playing Jimmy Rabbitte, the manager of the titular band, in the 1991 film The Commitments.
A native of Drumcondra, Dublin, Arkins began his professional music career at the age of 15 and left school at 17 to front the band Housebroken, which won a local competition in 1988. With no prior acting experience, he was cast in The Commitments after several auditions, initially for another role before being given the part of Rabbitte. He contributed lead vocals to two tracks on the film's soundtrack album.
Arkins has since focused primarily on music, composing for short films and other projects. He has made occasional returns to acting, including in the 2018 film The Comeback and earlier short films.
