Film Reviews

Summer Of The Flying Saucer

• Rating:
• Director: Martin Duffy
• Starring: Hugh O'Connor
• Details: Ireland / 86mins (PG).

Pitched as a light-hearted romp, this comedy opens in GMIT where Patrick Bergin's lecturer, Dan, tells his class of one crazy summer way back in 1967... A teenage Dan (Sheehan) returns to his hometown in Mayo from Galway a 'hippie,' and isn't looking forward to spending a boring summer in a backwater town with his small-minded father. Things take an upturn when Dan and best friend Lorcan (Colley) find two aliens and their flying saucer in a discarded farmhouse. Dan falls for the prettiest (who can blame him - Jens Winter's alien looks like Nick Cave with a hangover), whom he names Janis Joplin (Kernan, but voiced by Nicola Coughlan). The town grow suspicious of these 'hippies' and the race is on for Dan to help fix their spaceship before the pitchforks come out. It's a nice message: substitute 'hippies' for 'foreign nationals' and you got a film about peace, love and understanding – something everyone needs. Summer Of The Flying Saucer, however, doesn't work because the story isn't up to it; scratch that - the idea wasn't the strongest to begin with. Not even on paper. On the upside, the '60s are nicely realised and the performances have some charm going for them: Sheehan veers from shaky to decent, Colley enjoys himself as the kooky mate, while Hugh O'Connor delivers another predictably dependable turn - it's a shame he isn't getting the right roles but, with only a handful of Irish movies made each year, an actor sometimes has to take what's on the table. The Irish film industry desperately needs a brilliant film to ignite interest in the indigenous movie-going public, sadly Summer Of The Flying Saucer isn't it.

Review by Gavin Burke