In a sleepy corner of post-Troubles Belfast sits Maguire’s Antiques, managed in his brother’s absence by Bostonian JOE MAGUIRE (Brendan Fraser). Joe is in hiding from his insanely jealous ex wife and her mafiaboss father and is keeping a low profile there, although he has struck up a friendship with the beautiful SOPHIE (Yaya Dacosta), an Ethiopian refugee who works nearby.
Joe has noticed someone hanging round the store recently and is worried that his whereabouts might have been discovered. JIMBO (Marty McCann), the young man in question, has no connection with his vengeful in-laws however, but he is interested in another aspect of Joe’s past life he believes he’s his long lost father, who had a summer fling with his late mother and then deserted her when she became pregnant. However, his bitterness towards Joe is not the only thing preoccupying Jimbo he owes money to local casino owner and hard man, MAD DOG FLYNN (David O’Hara) and if he doesn’t pay him back, Flynn has threatened to take his new born son from him.
Desperate to find a way out of his plight, Jimbo decides to rob the local fish shop Whole Lotta Sole his pal SOX (Conor MacNeill) has told him that the Friday takings are always high in Catholic areas. But this proves to be disastrously wrong there’s no money in the safe, just an old brown leather bag, which Jimbo grabs before fleeing. Unfortunately, the bag belongs to Mad Dog Flynn and contains incriminating evidence which his nemesis in the city police force DETECTIVE INSPECTOR WELLER (Colm Meaney), would love to get his hands on.
With the law on his heels and pushing his baby son in a pram (the babysitter has let him down), Jimbo dives into the first place of refuge he can find Maguire’s Antiques. As DI Weller’s police and then the SAS quickly lay siege to the store, Jimbo soon discovers that he’s acquired four unwelcome and unexpected hostages: Maguire himself, his girlfriend Sophie and two impish traveller children PETIE and PAULIE (Jamie Kierans and James Napier) who had been hiding in the shop, planning to pocket what they could and escape when the coast was clear. Weller however, is not yet aware of Jimbo’s involvement having
discovered Maguire’s murky mob connections; he comes to the conclusion that the mysterious Yank is both the fish market robber and the hostage taker.
Inside the barricaded store, Sophie is finding out that the new man in her life is not only married to a mobster’s daughter, but is also, as a result of that long ago summer affair, a father to the increasingly unstable young man who is holding them hostage. When Jimbo tries to take his own life and the gun jams Joe finally manages to disarm him and calm him down. And when he tells them about Mad Dog Flynn and they inspect the contents of the brown leather bag, Joe sees a way out of their predicament.
As night falls, Maguire asks for a meeting and with arms raised, walks out to parlay with Weller who insists that the baby and the children be freed before any deal is done. But as the pram is cautiously being wheeled out of the shop, Petie and Paulie’s mother, the formidable MARY ELLEN (Amanda Horowitz), seizes her chance to burst through the police cordon where Weller’s community police officer son RANDY (Michael Legge) had been looking after her. She races into the Antique store and liberates her two sons, ignoring Jimbo and his machine gun. The ensuing chaos makes everyone extremely jumpy but with Petie, Paulie, the baby and Sophie now safe, negotiations are eventually resumed.
Weller agrees to Maguire’s request to give Jimbo and his family immunity from prosecution in return for the evidence that will put Mad Dog Flynn behind bars and Maguire agrees to take the rap for the Fish Market robbery. But when Weller inspects the bag, he finds nothing in it without the evidence, the deal is off. Joe races back inside to look for the lost items, while in a room across the street, Mad Dog Flynn, and his gang prime an old rocket launcher, determined to destroy the bag and its incriminating contents and anyone unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity. The first rocket fires wide but the second goes through the shop window and explodes in a burst of flame. Rescue workers and fire fighters don’t expect to find Joe and Jimbo alive but they had taken refuge inside the same old sofa used as a hiding place by the traveller boys.
They emerge smoke stained but unharmed. Jimbo is reunited with his family, Sophie is reunited with Joe, and Weller gets his evidence, discovered in the pram where it had been secreted by Petie and Paulie he arrests Mad Dog and his gang later that night. Weller is true to his word and the next day, Joe and Sophie say good bye to Jimbo as he and his family leave to restart their life abroad, Joe promising to keep in touch with his new found son. And as this particular corner of Belfast settles back into normality, he discovers that the police will not, in fact be pressing charges against him and that his mobster father in law has become a police informer and is no longer a threat to him. With Sophie by his side, Joe’s life too, can now return to normal.
Screen Daily “Whole Lotta Sole is effortlessly watchable.”
Whole Lotta Sole
Old School Arts Centre, Stewart St, Raglan
Sat. 16th March at 8pm and Sunday 17th at 4.30pm
Director:
Terry George
Cast:
Brendan Fraser
Martin McCann
David O’Hara
Colm Meaney
Yaya Alafia
Genre:
Drama/ Comedy
Censor’s rating:
M – Violence and offensive
language
Total Run Time:
88mins