Middletown is another film from the increasingly prolific Irish Film Board / Bórd Scannán na hÉireann who have, in recent years, put money into the likes of Isolation, Shrooms, Becoming Jane, Breakfast on Pluto and The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Not a bad selection of films, to be honest, and despite its flaws Middletown stands up pretty well alongside them. It’s a strange film, though, and one that divided the critics – Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian, for instance, hated it with a vengeance, while Philip French from the Observer seemed to find it of some interest. Which probably says as much about the critical perspectives of Bradshaw and French as the film itself.
It’s essentially a melodrama with some gothic touches. Gabriel Hunter (Matthew Macfadyen) returns from training for the priesthood and a spot of missionary work to his home town, to replace the aging, easygoing reverend. Unfortunately, in the time he’s been away he seems to have developed delusions of grandeur, believing himself to be a direct, incontestable representative of God, sent to clear up all the sinful behavior that’s taking place in the vicinity. He castigates his dad (Gerard McSorley) for selling smuggled fuel, falls out with his sister in law (Eva Birthistle), who runs a local pub and is therefore an instrument of the devil, and deprives his brother (Daniel Mays) of his expected inheritance, despite the fact the poor guy’s been partly paying for all his training and has so little money left he can’t even afford to finish building his house.
Gradually, it becomes clear that Gabriel isn’t merely strict and inflexible, he’s actually completely round the twist. Events begin to escalate…
Despite the fact that it’s all rather ripe, it’s also rather entertaining. There are a lot of biblical allusions, of course, possibly too many (return of the prodigal son, a birth in the pub called the stables, the nutzoid protagonist being called Gabriel etc etc), and the setting – both in terms of time and location – is kept deliberately inconclusive. Even Gabriel’s actual religion is unclear, it never being specified whether he’s a protestant, catholic or something else entirely. So it’s a melodramatic metaphor, arguing against the inhumanity of religious fundamentalism, and it’s certainly true to say that in Gabriel the writers have created another singular entry in the ‘horrible priest’ cinematic canon. This guy is such an arse he could almost feature in a Viz cartoon, and the point at which his brother smacks him in the face comes not a moment too soon.
Even with all these metaphors running rampant, though, the film as a whole does feel rather insubstantial. Not a huge amount happens, and the overwrought ending, when it does come, is over with very quickly. It looks good, though, and the acting is of a high standard. I’ve always found Macfadyen a rather unappealing leading man, and he’s much better in these shaded kinds of roles (such as in the underrated In My Father’s Den). Daniel Mays, on the other hand, is much more animated, and is gradually proving to be one of the best young British actors about, a kind of talented Danny Dyer. You have to hope that one of the key tasks of the Irish Film Board, though, isn’t to promote Ireland as a holiday destination: just about every film I’ve seen produced by them depicts it as being a miserable, decrepit place full of mumbling halfwits.
