‘Roise & Frank’: Dublin Review

Dirs/scr: Rachel Moriarty, Peter Murphy. Ireland. 2022. 84 mins.

This one certainly comes from left of field - of the ancient Irish game of hurling. In Roise & Frank, the titular Roise (Brid Ni Neachtain) is a widow in deep mourning in the Irish-speaking Gaeltacht around Ring, County Waterford, who is visited by a dog (played by Barley) who may turn out to be a reincarnation of her late husband Frank. Roise & Frank has a very definite sniff of Michael Landon via the 80s TV series Highway To Heaven, a retro country-comfort homespun watch which is clearly best suited to domestic exposure but has its naive tail-wagging charms as child-friendly entertainment. A TV series seems a natural progression.

From small films like Roise & Frank, bigger movements can emerge.

‘Frank madra’ - being the Irish word for dog - seems to have a dual mission in this small, picturesque village. First, he must make himself known to Rosie, bring her back to life, and reunite her with doctor son Alan (Cillian O’Gairbhi) and her freshly-minted grandchild. A fanatically devoted hurler when he was alive, though, Frank as a dog also has his sights set on a shunned local child and becoming the parish team’s hurling mascot. Peril comes from intolerant neighbour Donncha (Lorcan Cranitch, well practiced in this type of role), who has his sights set on Roise and won’t hesitate to send Frank to the dog pound should he get in the way.

Roise & Frank is a shaggy dog story which proceeds cosily as expected. Lines in Gaelic have a tendency to be delivered as opposed to performed, and it’s clear that this Cine4-backed Irish-language production is smuggling in a lot of appeals to national pride (in the language, the native sport, and the beauty of the area) under Frank’s fur. The only unexpected moment comes when the hound dog raises an eyebrow as the matronly Roise steps out of the shower - in a towel, naturally - which is so absurd and funny that it bounces the remainder of the film along on goodwill alone.

Roise & Frank is very small-scale - at 84 minutes, it’s not too far off Saturday lunchtime programming - but writers and directors Rachel Moriarty and Peter Murphy are working with a formula that has struck gold over the ages in all formats: a dog and a lonely young child. The WC Fields maxim never to work with children or animals tends to pay off when defied. In Ireland, that should be with regular TV exposure and potential for an extension of the concept. 

Produced by Cuan Mac Conghail (Arracht), this is the second Irish-language film at this year’s Dublin Film Festival and is shot in the tiny area around Ring in Waterford, a less-rugged part of the country than is traditionally portrayed in native-language fare. Wide-shots of the area look suitably scenic (although Roise and her friends live in dumpy bungalows in a normal everyday village). There haven’t been many Irish-language films to date. Arracht, Foscadh, The Quiet Girl and Roise & Frank constitute something of a run of buses in comparison to what has gone before, but they’re increasingly finding an appetite when they land commercially at home. 

From small films like Roise & Frank, bigger movements can emerge. And, yes, Barley is a natural.