Irina Palm (2007)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 103 minuten
Country:
United Kingdom / Belgium / Luxembourg / Germany / France
Directed by: Sam Garbarski
Stars: Marianne Faithfull, Predrag 'Miki' Manojlovic and Kevin Bishop
IMDb score:
7,2 (8.044)
Releasedate: 13 February 2007
Irina Palm plot
Maggie is a 60-year-old desperate widow. Her grandson has to undergo life-saving surgery and this requires a lot of money. Maggie has already sold her house and borrowed money from everyone in the area. But she can't handle that. Completely naive, she enters a sex shop in London's Soho with the unimaginative name Sexy World, in the hope of getting a job there. Miki, the boss of Sexy World, is intrigued by Maggie and amused by the situation, and offers Maggie a job. He gives her the pseudonym Irina Palm. Thus begins a new secret life for Maggie in which she literally and figuratively has to use her hands for the first time in her life.
Reviews & comments
BBarbie
-
- 12893 messages
- 7675 votes
Smooth tragicomedy about a grandmother, who is going to perform "manual labor" in a sex club for her grandson. Well, where there is demand, supply arises, as it were. Or vice versa.
Despite the dramatic story, director Garbarski keeps it remarkably light and that benefits the film. Nevertheless, it is a pity that towards the end the drama threatens to gain the upper hand a bit too much. The film is also a few seconds too long. The final scene, in my opinion, does not fit well with the preceding one.
Years ago I saw Marianne Faithfull, whom I mainly know as a singer and then Mick Jagger's sweetheart in the 1960s, in a movie with Alain Delon. I don't really know anything more about that, but it has to be said in this film she looks great. All-rounder Miki Manojlović (including Cirkus Columbia) is ideally suited for the role of sex club operator.
A fun film despite the drama.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Collins
-
- 7346 messages
- 4345 votes
Nice tragicomedy, in which comedy and tragedy are handled in a very controlled manner.
Given the plot, throwing crazy comic situations is the obvious choice. That's not happening. The humor is not predictable or exaggerated.
The film keeps it light without ending up in extreme situations and can be watched with a good smile with a controlled sniffle moment here and a light chuckle moment there. The balance between the two is ok.
I immediately noticed that, as far as I'm concerned, the balance tilts a little too much in the last fifteen minutes to the compelling feel-good and all the fine subtlety, which characterizes the rest of the film, is unfortunately suddenly thrown overboard. Those last minutes feel quite forced and are not entirely in line with the delicate tenor of the film up to that point.
Faithfull is well cast as the main character. A sad look, a strange penguin walk and the radiance of a certain intransigence do a lot in a dramatic and comical sense. It's subtle acting that works very effectively.
Nice movie.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico
-
- 10039 messages
- 5398 votes
Irina Palm is a powerful drama about self-sacrifice and the desperate search for financial means to save a seriously ill child. Sounds intense and sentimental, it is as far as the first is concerned, but it never got corny. Also because the emphasis was not on the sick child, but on the extra income of the grandmother.
The film is certainly not perfect and does have some flaws. Some plot twists were not necessary at all or were a bit unbelievable. The fact that a relationship is started with the manager of the club at the end was a bit of a stretch. That everything with the family becomes a piece of cake, where perhaps the bridges were blown up with the community (as well as the way in which) is a daring approach.
It is funny that the grandmother tries to introduce a homely atmosphere at her workplace. And I also had the feeling that all the customers seemed to have a supersized model when you saw her arm movements. But it was certainly a nice viewer, where a taboo and an uncomfortable subject touched each other.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Corporate & Media
Realtimes Network
Innovatieweg 20C
7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31(315)-764002
