An Everlasting Piece

By PETER CALDER

(Herald rating: * * )

Barry Levinson, one of the cinema's great regionalists, crafted films such as Tin Men and Diner — wryly observed comedies that were first and foremost affectionate valentines to his hometown of Baltimore.

This film is set in Belfast in the 80s at the height of the Troubles, but has much in common with Tin Men, in which Richard Dreyfuss and Danny De Vito peddled aluminium cladding to gullible homeowners.

The salesmen here are Colm O'Neill (McEvoy, who also wrote the screenplay) and George (O'Byrne), respectively Catholic and Protestant, who work as barbers in the local asylum.

Their friendship, which transcends the sectarian violence, becomes a business partnership when they discover that one patient (Connolly) has ruined a promising hairpiece business through his habit of committing acts of violence on customers, which has earned him the nickname "Scalper."

After getting his client list they form a com-
pany called Everlasting Piece, but find their monopoly threatened by interlopers trading under the name Toupee or Not Toupee.

It's an improbable setup and while it's always on the verge of working it never really hangs together, not least because the drama of the competition for customers is never really developed.

The script is rich in bleakly comic episodes, some of which McEvoy has plainly drawn from real life (the mistaken identity of a sleeping drunk, for example, or the perilous location of Colm's home) but the ideas are rootless and seem to have no narrative payoff.

And the marriage between comedy and comment is at best uncomfortable, particularly at the climax, when the principals find a problematic market for their wares.

The intention is clearly to depict the triumph of the human spirit in hard times, but we never really form any great affection for the characters.

Connolly is a treat as Scalper, a wild-eyed lunatic abroad. "Do I change here for Sodom and Gomorrah?" he intones as he descends from a bus and wanders off into the night, adding. "Blessed are the bewildered."

But it's hard not to conclude that Levinson would have been more at home at home.

Cast: Barry McEvoy, Brian O'Byrne, Anna Friel, Billy Connolly

Director: Barry Levinson

Running time: 107 mins

Rating: M (offensive language)

Screening: Academy