Quirke (2014)

Too much of everything

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

For anyone who is Irish, who grew up in the 1960-70's, the Quirke series is like getting a flashback to the time that our parents came of age. For all of us, there was a dark overhanging gloom that we had nothing to do with but had to fight against. That dark gloom is aptly described here.Lately, a whole lot of attention is given to the impending retirement of Daniel Day-Lewis. He is a great Irish actor but I haven't even seen the last three movies that he has been in. Gabriel Byrne, on the other hand, is the actor whose work I do follow. He has mastered the role of the Everyman, faced with all of the sorrow and joy of life, and the negotiation in between. I have never seen him in a role that disappoints, and he is certainly worth watching in the Quirke series.I wish that the series could be continued, especially because Irish social history needs that kind of exploration, with exactly the kind of character that Gabriel Byrne delivers in the Quirke series.I'm giving it 10 out of 10 because it's a great work that has no reliance on anything but the acting performances delivered. It's as if everyone involved had sat down together and agreed about exactly what to do. That kind of intimacy is usually only possible with stage performances. Somehow, the cast and crew of Quirke have managed to achieve that.There is no reason to not watch all three episodes of Quirke, against a multitude of reasons to sit, watch and study. You'll be glad that you can say that you saw it.

The new BBC drama 'Quirke' takes us into postwar Ireland - seedy, drunken, dominated by the twin evils of the church and the wealthy and corrupt. It's a somewhat clichéd view, made palatable by the series' muted tone, although at times in the first episode I struggled to follow the softly spoken dialogue and relatively (for a murder drama) understated plot. Unlike many such series, there's an overall narrative as well as individual stories; the fact that Quirke's niece has a separate, personal connection to all three murders reduces the overall plausibility. The cast is an impressive one, but the scripts don't really call on them to do anything extraordinary; the detail with which their characters' feelings are observed is often weaker than its symbolic depiction (endless booze and cigarettes). To me, 'Quirke' fell between two stools: too low-key and gloomy to be fun family entertainment, but not truly deep either.

I looked forward to Quirke with Gabriel Byrne back in the British small screen after his foray to Hollywood. In Quirke he is an alcoholic pathologist in 1950s Dublin. Quirke has been adopted by the wealthy Griffin family. His adopted father is played by Michael Gambon.The family itself has hidden secrets, Quirke's own daughter has been raised by his brother when Quirke's wife died. However Quirke has also been carrying on with his brother's wife.In the three films atmospherically shot in a low budget television way, we have Quirke probing into babies being adopted out by the church, or a wide boy taking saucy pictures of married women and using them to blackmail their husbands and the final film is on the hunt of a missing girl who might have had an abortion.The film meshes dark secrets in a 1950s Dublin where the Roman Catholic church has an overbearing influence.However the final product was poor. The first film had sound issues and the films were just dull with a mundane script, predictable characterisation and badly directed. In fact they looked like television dramas from 20 years ago and forgotten that filming techniques have moved on.The series reminded me of Inspector George Gently especially with its period drama setting and the changing social scene of the 1960s north east England but Gently is miles ahead in entertainment value and production values, ironic as the early films were shot in the Republic of Ireland.Quirke is disappointing and a disappointment.

I kept watching, just hoping it would get better. Three A-list principals, it just has to be good, right? IMHO, the writing was on par with a Quincey MD episode, the acting was either forced or flat, and the writing, editing, and directing abrupt. Just because it had the atmosphere of Foyle's War or The Bletchley Circle did not make it so. Glamour and style do not make up for a lack of substance. There were so many blatantly obvious hints about the "event which might be considered by some a twist" that by the time it arrived all I could say was "well duh-UH!" In fact, twist is too strong a term, as is reveal. Think of this as being on the opposite end of the spectrum from an Inspector Morse.