DIFF: Lauren's Cherrybomb Review

I do know how lucky I am to have seen Cherrybomb, when everyone else is still waiting and waiting, and I am still pinching myself at how the trip came together. The following review is full of spoilers and very much a product of a brainstorming session with my friends S&S.

Anything insightful and clever is definitely theirs.

Cherrybomb, at the Dublin Film Festival, 20th February, 2009.

I don't know how many film scripts are sent to twenty-year-old film stars, but I am cynical enough to assume that most of them involve body parts and fruit pies.

How many involve actual teenagers, wasting their summers outside leisure centres and taking drugs in nightclubs?

I don't know if Rupert Grint and Robert Sheehan went skipping around their front rooms when they read the script of Cherrybomb, but to be offered teenage roles that involve sex, drugs and violence, without glamourising them, and vulnerability, confusion and friendship, without belittling them, must have caused some skipping, surely?

Rupert's 'Malachy' and Robert's 'Luke' are awaiting their exam results with far different expectations.

Malachy's doting, yet stifling parents are thrilled with his multiple A grades and throw a caring, yet inhibiting family dinner. Because what 16-year-old isn't stifled by a mum who questions his need to celebrate with his friends rather than deciding his future over dinner?

Luke's wrecked, alcoholic father and minor gangster brother are disinterested in him as anything other than a fellow drug dealer, and what 16-year-old doesn't actually, deep down, crave a family who cares and make a fuss of them?

But, against the wishes of Malachy’s parents and in light of their shared suffocation, they are best friends and have the summer before them and money in their pockets – Luke's from selling drugs, Malachy's from working at their local Leisure Centre – and they are determined to have a good time.

Maybe calling the leisure centre the Titanic Leisureplex was asking for trouble? Maybe the foreshadowing was a sign of the inevitability of the disaster which would follow?

Enter Michelle, daughter to Malachy's philandering boss, dumped on his hands by a despairing ex-wife and the immediate target of the hormones and attentions of both young men.

She seems delighted to play them off against each other, and their attempts to impress her alternate between nightclub brawls, destruction of property and joy riding. Their friendship seems stretched to breaking point, but when the petty crime escalates out of control, it truly passes all tests.

The final day starts with Malachy's supposed victory, as Michelle takes him to bed. This tender scene is cut short as they are interrupted, by her father, before they actually 'go all the way'. Michelle, showing her insecurity, believes that Malachy is simply trying to beat his mate and is heartbreakingly cynical about the entire situation, while Malachy opens up to her, revealing that it means far more to him than she realises.

Meanwhile, Luke's father has left him, his brother has briskly treated him as a fellow drug dealer and he is all alone. You would expect him to treat a victorious Malachy with anger and jealousy, but this is his best friend.

He is thrilled with his friend's success in what he obviously just thought of as a conquest contest. He wants all the details and their fantastic boyish banter – especially when Malachy admits he still hasn't actually done the deed – only turns bitter when Luke realises that Malachy is falling for her.

It is at this pivotal moment that Luke realises that Malachy is all he has left, and that he is now in competition with Michelle for Malachy's attention.

A humiliated Michelle plots revenge on her father, by throwing a party at his leisure centre; Malachy will obviously do whatever she wants; Luke, feeling completely abandoned, has nothing to offer but his brother's drug supplies.

He and Malachy kick down the heavily padlocked door… did we read too much symbolism into breaking the lock together just as their padlock and key friendship seems close to breaking point?

The disillusioned youth of the neighbourhood descend on the leisure centre, and Luke's anger spirals out of control as the party also spirals and descends into chaos, spilling over into a fist fight with Malachy when he sees how attached he is becoming to Michelle.

This surely isn't jealousy that his mate has won the girl – he was thrilled when he thought Malachy had slept with her – this is utter desolation at being totally alone if he doesn't have his friend, anymore.

When Malachy fights back, Michelle realises that he is sincere and her brazen act cracks and shatters as she lets him take care of her, and only then does Luke admit defeat. The simple act of Malachy wrapping a towel around a shivering Michelle shows them all the depth of their emotions and the honesty which is finally being recognised.

The ensuing drug sodden revelry ends with a beautiful moment of friendship between the two boys, making us hope they can salvage something, after all.

The arrival of Michelle's father the following morning, disturbing the trio as they slumber on lilos on the water's surface, both cements and destroys this hope.

Malachy's attempt to protect Michelle from her father's anger turns it firmly in his direction and he is flung to the floor, with blows raining down on his face. The attack is both heartbreaking and savage as the audience sees flashes of Malachy’s cut and devastated face in between the blows.

What else can Luke do but protect him?

What else can Luke do but leap to the defence of the one person in his life who still sees the potential in him to be something good?

But his defence of his best friend proves fatal.

Michelle is left clinging to her father's body as Luke rouses a blood soaked Malachy and tries to get him to flee. Malachy refuses and Luke won't leave him, and they are both arrested and led from the devastated leisure centre in the custody of the emergency services.

The film ends, as it began, with close up police cameras on the boys' faces, Malachy accepting what Luke has done for him, Luke admitting he'd do anything for his best friend. The ending is particularly important as, in a film which emphasised the importance of looking forward and the future, the audience is left wondering about the future Malachy and Luke will now face.

The film was bleak, upsetting, touching and hopeful and a perfect summer film for drifting teenagers who can actually think. All three central performances were extraordinary, particularly the two boys. Seeing it in Ireland was a very special experience, with the audience enjoying every moment, gasping during the final scene until there was no oxygen left in the building, then running with whispers on the way out about the purity of Rupert's Belfast accent.

I know a recession is a dreadful time to try and get a distribution deal for a small, indie film… I desperately hope that someone takes advantage of Warner Brothers' blanket publicity in July and realises that Rupert's face will be on every bus stop in the country, and that maybe they can bounce off that and into cinemas in August.