Inside I'm dancing, Mickybo and me

Herald rating:

Inside I'm dancing (* * *)
Mickybo and me (* * *)

Two little Irish gems that bear hunting out. In the first, Rory O'Shea (James McAvoy) arrives at the Carrigmore Home for the Disabled, a Dublin punk whose muscular dystrophy means he can control only two fingers of one hand. He strikes up a friendship with Michael Connolly (Steven Robertson), as he is the only one who can understand Michael's speech. Michael would stay in the home forever, but Rory wants a ticket out.

The hospital board thinks he's not ready because of his condition and his recklessness, so Rory persuades Michael to apply. When Michael is approved, Rory points out that he'll need an interpreter.

They persuade Siobhan (Romola Garai) that being their caregiver will be more exciting than her job stacking supermarket shelves and they both get a crush on her, during which Rory will have to interpret whatever Michael wants to say to her. It's a poignant and believable tale.

Mickybo and Me is set in Belfast in 1970, a city divided by The Troubles.

But 10-year-old Micky Boyle and Johnjo are having too much fun growing up to notice that they're supposed to be on opposite sides.

Mickybo (John Joe McNeill) struggles for attention from his mother (Julie Walters) and father (Adrian Dunbar) in their large Catholic family.

Johnjo (Niall Wright) is the indulged only son of a father (Ciaran Hinds) guilty about his affair with a cinema usher (Susan Lynch). The mother (Gina McKee) wants them out of the disintegrating home.

Anything seems possible to the boys, even running off to Australia together, inspired by sneaking into the cinema to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

But the time and place will break in on, and break up, the innocence of childhood.

* DVD, Video rental out now