Inside I'm Dancing

From Working title comes this hilarious movie that everyone should check out.

M o v i e   D e t a i l s
Format Theatre	Director Damien O'Donnell	Distributor Working Title	Genre Comedy, Horror	Release Out Now

The most apparent thing about Inside I'm Dancing at first glance is that the two main characters are wheelchair-bound. You would be forgiven for thinking that this film plays upon your heart strings and is all about political correctness, but if so you can leave your first impressions at the door.

The movie is hilarious and lets the viewer know that people with disabilities can be just as bad as the rest of us. Despite that, it will play with your emotions and I'm not ashamed to say that while I laughed a few times, I shed a tear too. The main character, Michael (Stephen Robertson), is a cerebral palsy sufferer who is barely capable of speech and is one of many wheelchair bound residents of a home. The young man's personal life is a tragedy; his mother is dead and his father has abandoned him. Carers encourage Michael to point out letters on a card to communicate as his strained speech too difficult for them to take in. All the while life slowly passes him by.

Enter Rory, a spiky-haired, pierced loudmouth, who, in contrast to Michael, is all too mouthy, often veering from affable and genial to arrogant and grating in the same breath. He has muscular dystrophy but doesn't let it stop people having a laugh with him or thinking he's a bastard. The moment Rory gets in the door he grabs the attention of all, announcing his entrance into the home with a cocky and imaginatively crude speech. His arrival earns him the laughter of the residents and a reproach from the head nurse for using such profanity (who, for your information, is played by Brenda Fricker, who last played the role of somebody minding a cerebral palsy sufferer in "My Left Foot"). Rory it turns out is the only person in the whole home who has spent any significant amount of time in conversation with a cerebral palsy sufferer and understands Michael perfectly. He uses this ability to make his newfound friend understood whenever it's important, and quite often to take the piss when it isn't - most memorably when introducing his father to Michael.

They become friends quickly: Rory translating for Michael; Michael gelling Rory's hair (Rory is aghast to discover that the nurses don't have time for such things). The spirit of the film is evident when the pair are brought out on the streets to collect money for the home they live in…or perhaps to guilt-trip people into making a donation! Amid all the residents sitting silently with buckets of change in their laps, Rory spends the time trying to chat up passing women and, upon tiring of this, takes Michael to the pub with him. They get drunk, chat up girls and Rory even manages to start a fight when the beautiful Siobhán (Romola Garai) enters the story and calms the situation. They are both left breathless. Sick of the home and inspired by Rory to do something about it, Michael manages to get a place to call his own with Rory as the "live-in interpreter". Uninspired by the selection of carers available, they reach the conclusion - affected in no small part by testosterone - that Siobhán is the carer for them. Somehow they manage to convince her to take up the position, after that things get a bit more complicated.

The aspect I most enjoyed about Inside I'm Dancing is that it isn't asking the viewer to feel sorry for anybody. It is totally free of the "look at the poor disabled person and feel sorry for them" that is all too often contained in similar efforts. This is most certainly not a film about living with disability, it is a movie about realising that we have to do something with what time we have, and that no matter how many things threaten to hold us back in life, only we can let them. Inside I'm Dancing concerns itself with struggle, but no struggle unique to wheelchair-users; Rory and Michael's attempts at being approved for an independent living allowance can be related to by anybody who has ever had to go through the mill to get money from the government. The characters are from a minority group but their problems certainly aren't.

There is some great dialogue in this film, most of which comes from the outspoken character of Rory due in part to his role as Michael's translator to the rest of the cast. It is all convincingly Irish in its attitude and delivery. The primary actors make a name for themselves as masters of the Irish accent; McAvoy, Robertson and Garai are from Glasgow, the Shetland Islands and London respectively but I couldn't pick up one slip in the whole film. Interestingly, Stephen Robertson had the doubly challenging task of learning to speak like a cerebral palsy sufferer with a Dublin accent

While the interaction between Rory and Michael doesn't affect the enjoyment of the film for anybody with experience in the suspense of disbelief, it isn't totally convincing. In particular the fact that Rory is the only person in the movie who can understand Michael can be a little hard to swallow, especially in the scenes in the home. Watching the film, I could make out one word per sentence on average and I've never had a conversation with a cerebral palsy sufferer in my life. To believe that people who work with him every day could have such difficulty understanding him is a bit far fetched. It could be argued that perhaps he sounds clearer to the audience than he seems to sound to the cast in order for us to feel closer to the character of Michael, but when so much effort has obviously been put into the role that kind of embellishment seems unlikely. It is easy to imagine people being annoyed every time this far-fetched premise appears but it is the only aspect of Inside I'm Dancing that goes against the spirit of the movie. That being said however, it could be argued that the cast's struggle to understand Michael is a metaphor for the way the world treats the disabled.

The cast have done themselves proud; in fact I don't think that there was a single stage in the film where I felt anybody let the team down. The voice acting as I have already pointed out was most impressive. Stephen Robertson was incredible in his portrayal of a man with cerebral palsy, particularly in light of how his character carried himself throughout. When Michael tried to talk or do something as simple as brushing his teeth, the audience didn't just see the attempt, they saw the frustration at the difficulty of the task. McAvey's performance is the shot in the arm the story needs to come to life and it is hard to imagine getting a laugh out of the movie without him. It would be an endurance test to watch Inside I'm Dancing without Rory. The actor's comic timing is bang on and he seems to relish the role of the loud and proud disabled character. Rory can be a horrible person at times but in spite of this I still found myself laughing at his jokes. Romola Garai is on the periphery of the movie and doesn't really have as big a role compared to the dynamic duo. She is however just as convincing in her part and expresses emotion with conviction where it's needed, thus making the film more complete.

Inside I'm Dancing gets the viewer on board in no time, providing plenty of laughs and even making you pay in tears at times. This isn't a film about people in wheelchairs; it's a film about people like you and me. It looks past the disability and focuses on the person, warning the viewer not to pass up on life. Don't worry of this sounds slightly overbearing as Rory brings the script back to earth with his brand of humour.

David Flaherty
Staff Writer, Kikizo Movies

T H E   S C O R E S

Screenplay Direction Cinematics Production Overall 9.0 9.0 7.0 8.0 8.3

The Final Word:  The movie is perhaps a bit more poignant in light of Christopher Reeve's recent passing, but if anything that also just goes to show that even something like disability shouldn't hold you back from achieving your dreams.