The Boys & Girl from County Clare (review)

How high is your tolerance for charming shite? Those who can't get enough of exaggerated brogues and nonstop fiddle music should dive right into this aggressively enchanting tale of star-crossed lovers, feuding brothers, and drinkin' till ya puke. Fair warning: The boys and girl are competing at the All Irish Music Championship in the late 1960s, so that nonstop fiddle music gets so infectiously toe-tapping it becomes actually maddening, though it does serve to distract from the slight, trite, overly familiar story; there are honest-to-goodness emerald-green four-leaf clovers on the DVD jacket in case you missed the whole Irish tie-in. But the cast is superb -- Colm Meaney (King of Texas) and Bernard Hill (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) as the brothers, all prickly hardscrabble grace, and Andrea Corr (of the rock band The Corrs) and Shaun Evans (Being Julia) as the lovers, all steely Celtic sweetness -- even if they're coasting through this with their eyes closed. Demanding or complicated this ain't, for either the audience or the talent.