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When Brendan Met Trudy

EMAILPRINTThe Shooting Gallery

When Brendan Met Trudy reviews
53
9.6 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 5 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Romance

Written by: Roddy Doyle

Directed by: Kieron J. Walsh

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 9, 2001

Running Time: 95 minutes, Color

Origin: UK / Ireland

Summary

RATING: Not rated

Starring Peter McDonald, Flora Montgomery, Gabriel Byrne, Marie Mullen, Pauline McLynn, and Don Wycherley

Peter McDonald and Flora Montgomery make an insanely appealing mismatched couple in this fast and fresh romantic comedy for movie maniacs. He wants to show her the glories of pre-Star Wars cinema. She wants to teach him her burglary skills. Kieron Walsh directs from a riotously funny script by Roddy Doyle. (Shooting Gallery)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The movie luxuriates in cinema references while laughing at its own fetishes -- a neat talent.

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80

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It's hard to stop quoting from a movie this good.

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80

Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart

A plucky comic valentine for those who love the movies more than their own mothers.

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80

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

An Irish lark that blows in, trailing daffodils and the sniff of spring, from that adventurous releasing company Shooting Gallery Films.

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75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

This is only a movie. But a good one. May Roddy Doyle give us many more.

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75

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A charmer.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It's a winning little movie about two people who get together, though they have no business getting together.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It has that unwound Roddy Doyle humor; the laughs don't hit you over the head, but tickle you behind the knee.

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70

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Far from the first movie in which a fearless woman coaxes the inner tiger crouched inside a mild-mannered milquetoast to spring into action, but it is one of the most charming.

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67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

There's still enough of Doyle's hilariously foul dialogue and outrageous, culture-shocked Irish characters for the film to be a good bit of fun.

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60

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Its greatest asset...Flora Montgomery, a flash of blond, Irish fire who makes Trudy well worth Brendan's trouble.

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60

Film.com Tom Keogh

About two lives in which transformation is a constant, destabilizing threat to freedom and sanity. That's a very provocative premise, though halfway through the movie Doyle and Walsh abandon its potential to go for easy laughs.

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50

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A too-cute-by-half Irish romantic comedy that's overloaded with movie references that begin with the title.

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50

Salon.com Charles Taylor

It's a movie almost doomed to be called "refreshing," in the way that the word is used to excuse the game but amateurish presentation of a quirky premise.

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50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

McDonald and Montgomery are fun to watch in this mildly amusing Irish romantic comedy.

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50

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

If you're charmed from the outset, this is an enjoyable trifle; if you're not, it never gets any less mannered and convinced of its own wit.

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50

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Poses as the story of a wild, eccentric love match but is really about a match made in limbo.

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50

Chicago Reader Fred Camper

Director Kieron J. Walsh never quite figures out what to do with the numerous film references (he quotes dialogue, they reenact scenes), and the resulting uncertainty in tone, which sometimes treats the characters as parodistic products of mass culture, undercuts his later attempts to suggest that their love is authentic.

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42

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Lacks the perfect timing, luster and true vitality of its predecessors.

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40

Variety Emanuel Levy

Intermittently funny movie. Almost every scene recreates or alludes to a Hollywood or foreign classic.

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40

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

McDonald makes for an appealingly befuddled bloke, and the sprightly Montgomery would turn any blighter's head. In a better movie, we'd care about what happened to them.

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40

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

Struggles to achieve a giddy eccentricity that never fully emerges.

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38

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Trudy is really the only character with the "Barrytown" zest, and Montgomery throws herself into the role with unselfconscious abandon. She makes the screen crackle with energy.

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30

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's the type of film that begs to be called “charming” and by doing so instead ends up grating.

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20

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Doyle loves bad jokes and his story has no rhyme or reason, dissolving in its last third into a bungled heist and jailhouse face-off.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Donald Hurst gave it a9:
This is funny and romantic movie that leaves you smiling for one hour up to one day,depending on how wide your romantic streak is.L have seen it 4or 5 times now and enjoy it every time.

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