highwaytourist
This story is truly a tragedy about Northern Ireland. The protagonist is Cal, a sensitive and aimless working-class Catholic youth in Ulster. Cal holds down various low-paying manual jobs during the day and at night, sometimes performs services for the Irish Republican Army, even though he's only a minor participant. In his most significant job, he becomes the getaway driver for the killer of a Protestant policeman, an assignment which upsets him greatly. A year later, he meets Marcella, a lonely, widowed librarian and becomes infatuated with her, and they drift into an affair. However, he learns to his horror that her late husband was the murdered policeman and can't bring himself to tell her. Meanwhile, both the law and the I.R.A. are beginning to close in on him. The film's intentions are good. It's an attempt to tell the story of ordinary people trapped in a place and time of political violence that damages everyone and everything around it, and forces people to make decisions that inevitably have tragic consequences. Unfortunately, there is too much tragedy, too much sadness, so much that it becomes hard to believe. The lead characters are a problem, too. The are weak and resigned people who can only evoke pity. You certainly cannot cheer them on like you could stronger people, the kinds of people who make good things happen for them. The result is tragedy overkill. Eventually, the viewer will also become resigned and glum.
wvisser-leusden
'Cal' deals with a subject that has been history for quite a long time by now: the violence in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Roman Catholics.Its plot is about a young Roman Catholic man who gets drawn in the terrorist IRA movement. He does not want that, but is too weak to resist. Of course, after having been involved in some violent acts, he cannot get out anymore. The tragedy is even more accentuated by a simultaneous love affair.This film just doesn't show any flaw. First of all, there is the magnificent acting of female lead Helen Mirren. Supported well by plenty of other good acting. The quality of the shooting. The bitter-sweet undertone of its tragic plot throughout its entire length. And, most of all, its setting against an Irish decor that was very actual in 1984.I happened to be in Dublin that year, and remember well the many sold-out performances of 'Cal' in the local cinema's. As well as the crowds of people queuing outside to get their tickets for the next show.
Glenn Walsh
Nobody that I have ever discussed this film with thinks it is any good. The characters are pretty much stereotypes from 'The Troubles,', but the core of the plot requires a suspension of disbelief that can't be made. The idea of a murdered RUC officer's widow taking up with a known Provo (regardless of her religion) is just too much to take in. Cal himself is a pretty unsympathetic character and by the end of the film he gets the kicking that he richly deserves. To make matters worse we get the usual diddly-dee score and lots of culshies doing rustic stuff because we are all so backward here.
taia
The film "Cal" is about a young boy who falls in love with Marcella, both Catholic. Cal "works" for the IRA, and he participated in the killing of Marcella's husband. Cal wants to get out of the IRA, but that's not too easy. Anyway, the whole story is really about the relationship between Cal and Marcella, a great Irish love story. A story with an Irish ending...
AD
