Robin Wright Penn Movie:

				Salesrank: 221123
		Used Price: $20.17
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
With delicate charm and dignity, The Playboys finds laughter, love, and scandal in a cozy Irish village in 1957. For her disapproving neighbors, it's bad enough that Tara Maguire (Robin Wright, with a fair Irish accent) won't identify the father of her baby, and she's making matters worse by inviting romance with Tom (Aidan Quinn), a carefree actor in a band of traveling players. Constable Hagerty (Albert Finney) is insanely jealous and possessive; he knows Tara's secret while hiding one of his own, and his roiling emotions lead to a climax with dangerous shades of Othello. Oscar®-nominated screenwriter Shane Connaughton (My Left Foot) maintains the gravity of this situation (including a subplot involving IRA smugglers), but never loses track of his character-based humor, especially in the good-natured clash between free spirits and dowdy conservative locals. Filmed in the idyllic Redhills Village of County Cavan, The Playboys is well-acted (especially by Finney) and refreshingly free of blarney. --Jeff Shannon

The Playboys [Region 2] Reviews:
Magical story
2009-08-21 - A beautiful story, acted similarly. It has a great ring of truth--growing up in the west of Ireland,I well remember the traveling performers who set up their tent on Monday and gave us Shakespeare one night, a murder-mystery the next, followed by a musical, a comedy--all starring the same nine or ten actors. Then on the weekend, gone overnight. Magical. In the movie, Milo O'Shea is a standout as the head of the troupe, the impressario, and Robin Wright-Penn has the Irish accent down pat, as does the besotted (and unrequited) Albert Finney At the wise insistence of the author of the book on which the film was based, the movie was shot right on the town green of a little town in Cavan. This is a little gem.

like The Snapper
2009-02-09 - The Playboys is a very good drama about village life and how everyone is up on everyone else's business--the typical smalltown denizens. When you have little, it is very important to make sure that those who don't live according to accepted dogmatic rules are kept in close inspection by those who think they don't have secrets to hide.

Robin Wright plays the put-upon unwed mother with strength and truth. Aidan Quinn, the traveling player who is smitten, and Albert Finney, the local cop who insists on being the fierce protector, put in their expected great work.

I believe the film is Irish and that makes it quite fine. Foreign work is always of a finer caliber, minding better the ways that people think and react to life's difficulties without chewing on the scenery.

well-acted, sweet
2008-12-21 - It's the 1950s in rural Ireland and lovely, unmarried Tara gives birth to a son. Who's the father? She won't say. But the local police sergeant played by Albert Finney is crazy about her, and more than a little crazy in general. He wants to marry her, but she refuses.
Enter a group of traveling players led by Milo O'Shea and featuring the comley Aidan Quinn and we have all the ingredients of a classic drama. Add in some smuggling, IRA bombs, a bombastic Catholic priest and the brew starts bubbling nicely.
This movie was well-acted and well-written -- the plot has a lot going on; the scenery is lovely; the accents are Irish and Robin Wright is very beautiful. I have just two criticisms: I found the music intrusive and too much like a pastiche of what people think Irish tunes should be. A little more serious, just when you think everything is building to a grand climax, it all kind of peters out to a conventional happy ending. But this is a grand little film to be sure, to be sure.

Men Suck, as Usual.
2008-08-28 - The Sheriff Rapes a Younge Girl, who goes on to have a baby and will not name the father of the child. She is ostrasized by the town. When she meets a new man, an actor the sheriff is jelous and interfers in her life and threatens it and the actors life. The sheriff ends up dead.

Worth the time spent watching
2008-01-14 - Although this is not a "Great" film, it is a good representation of a time period and life in that time. It shows the drama of life and how people adjust to make that drama tolerable. You have to watch it more than once to see the silliness of the characters, but it is worth the time. Irish cinema is wonderful.