How It Really Is...

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2002)

Speaking as someone who has friends/acquaintances in a couple of bands, and other friends who publish a local music magazine and/or run an independent CD label, i can't say enough good things about the accuracy(and sympathy) with which this film portrays such people.
The fact that the musicians are portrayed by actual musicians, rather than the producers having hired actors and taught them to fake it, is so unusual for films that it took me a while to realise that the performances were actual, filmed-on-the-fly performances, and not miming to pre-recorded tracks.
The various members of The Commitments see the band as a way out of the horrible socio-economic conditions in which they find themselves ("Mr. Rabbitte, you've been drawing unemployment for three years; are you *sure* you can't find a job?" "Let's face it, Missus, we're living in a third-world country..."). The scene in which the normally-sardonic Bernie, seen in the tiny apartment she shares with three generations of her family, breaks down and pleads with Jimmie not to kick her out of the band because she's had to be absent, caring for her sister's child, confessing that she sees no other way out, is both telling and poignant.
A line from another film -- "O Lucky Man!" -- always comes to mind when i watch "The Commitments"; when Mick Travis [Malcolm MacDowell] meets Alan Price and his band he says "Musicians -- are you rich, then?" and Price replies "No -- but me manager is..." Poor Jimmie Rabbitte doesn't even manage to get rich as a manager (though the Afterword-type scenes imply he's doing fairly well); he's too devoted to the music to really sell (and sell out) his friends the musicians.
As another reviewer has said; this is one film (and associated soundtrack CD) that belong in the collection of anyone with the slightest interest in music, even if you don't -- normally -- go for soul music.
I need to hunt up the DVD; all i have so far is the VHS.
Five out of Five -- or Ten out of Ten -- or whatever