The Commitments (1991)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Undescribable Perfection

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

I never heard or ever seen an Irish movie like "The Commitments" that is based on soul music and getting a band as if it were the Blues Brothers (which is way better I'm afraid). I absolutely loved the music, that was what kept me watching this movie, but I think it would been a lot better if there wasn't any involvement with the whole group bickering the whole time and then breaking up because of it. It kinda made the movie itself more distasteful in my opinion like c'mon not all of us Irish like to be snobs and on top of each other! I thought they made Andrew Strong's character a sleaze bag and like, it didn't really suit his role to be a doofus, I prefer if he was more of a chilled and hippie like person yknow. He was brilliant at the same time with singing like a legend, its too bad he didn't make a big career out of it!I'm afraid I have to give this movie a 6/10, I think the storyline and the character of Strong's characterization would need TLC here even if this was based in a novel!

First, if you're looking to buy this, do not buy the cheaper DVD on Amazon. It is a bootleg from China. This is a movie every music lover should have in their collection. Andrew Strong and crew make better versions than the originals in their covers. It is offbeat and quirky and there's a lot of trivia that may be unfamiliar to USA viewers. It pays to read the trivia notes. The acting is genuine and above par in so many scenes. I was amazed to learn it was a debut for so many of the core characters. The best trivia were 2: Andrew Strong's dad auditioning only for his 16 yr old son to get one of the lead roles and the kid on the skateboard is an older cover album favorite.

At the time when it came out it was the story not so far away of the attempt to import soul music into Ireland and make Ireland the Soul of Europe, I mean the Negro of Europe singing soul music to the proletarians. Today it has aged and it has become some kind of a rather nostalgic recollection of what things were back then when Ireland was not yet in anyway the Celtic Tiger it has become in the meantime.But the film has kept some depth about life and young people. For one young people, and in this case the main front musicians and vocalists, cannot succeed if they do not find some older more experienced people to help them find a vision, a path, an inspiration that makes them encounter the superior layers of their souls.The second lesson is that no one can go anywhere if they don't have a clear vision of what they want to do and where they want to go. They may be confused, not clear enough, follow the wrong star and change stars and directions several times before finding they way, but if they are inspired along the way they will find the path that leads to their realizing the deepest desires of theirs.But the film is sad because in the end it is the story of a failure since the group that is being built meets with success and as soon as they meet with that local success they become aggressive, violent to one another as if each one of them wanted to be the main star, as if the Milky Way only had one star. It is even painful to see how they come close to something and then reject it for plain selfish reasons.The last words of the older trumpet player do not make up for that failure? Each one of them has been lifted to a higher level of consciousness and will go on looking for a way to realize that expectation of theirs? That might be true for one, or two out of the whole lot but the others only step back into banal humdrum routine because they have learned very little from the experience that will remain for them a sorry experiment.

In my book, The Commitments really does get a 10/10! At the risk of sounding like a squealing fan, I really can't think of anything I didn't like about it.The film as a whole is refreshingly free of the clichés you usually find in movies of this sort - the characters are original, there is no cheesy romantic subplot (THANK you!), no predictable plot twists. It is all tied together into a remarkably light, funny, and ultimately hopeful movie.The music is fabulous as well, and I believe it is actually the actors singing their own songs - they do a wonderful job on both accounts.The Commitments is such a great little movie. It's too bad it doesn't get more viewings.