The Van

In Barrytown, a working-class part of Dublin, Bimbo the baker is laid off. With his redundancy money he buys an old van and starts selling fish and chips with his friend Larry. When Ireland goes unexpectedly far at the 1990 World Cup the streets fill and business booms. But as the money arrives the balance between the two men tips: one starts to be the boss, the other an employee. Adapted from Roddy Doyle's novel, this is the last of his Barrytown trilogy. Alan Parker directed the first, The Commitments; Stephen Frears directed The Snapper and this. Doyle wrote the screenplay himself. Colm Meaney plays Bimbo, and the film's real subject sits on his face: a friendship turning into an economic relationship. It screened in competition at Cannes in 1996. Who it's for: Viewers who like Irish working-class comedy and drama about friendships wearing out. Who it's not for: The tone shifts between comedy and sadness and it has less life than the first two films of the trilogy. Anyone here for football euphoria will find it kept in the background.