Great music, great characters, great story, great everything!

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2010)

They rock. They roll. They're obscene. They're Irish. And it's for these reasons that I love The Commitments. It's about a group of misfits and oddballs who create a band together aptly named The Commitments. They all have personalities as big as their beer mugs (sorry I couldn't resist an Irish stereotype joke) and so it's no surprise to see how this rag tag gang of rambunctious kids operates. But after wading through all the argument and personality clashes, the band discovers they actually have an incredible amount of talent. The movie's sole focus is on the band and it never strays to unnecessary side plots. What side stories there are all come back to the central focus around the band, each story influencing the band's progression throughout the movie. It is incredibly focused and respectfully handled filmmaking, and for that I love it.
The Commitments is extremely fun, yet also a very high quality of film. It's consistent in its pacing, timing, and overall level of energy that never falters. The movie remains at a sharp, witty, and fast paced rate that directly reflects the energy level required to hold this band together. The whole film remains exciting without going over the top. From the opening scene we are drawn in, not to be let go for another two hours. And surprisingly enough, the film is so captivating, yet never gets over-dramatic, and never takes the easy way out in drawing its audience in. It is consistently lighthearted and scene after scene put a bigger smile on my face.
What really makes The Commitments work though, is the characters. The bizarre bunch of people brought together to form this soul rock band are all so expertly written and ridiculously fun characters to watch interact. The band is formed of the strangest grouping of people, the kind you would never expect to have anything to do with each other. You have people like the lead singer, Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong) who is short tempered and extremely rude and obnoxious to all his band mates. There is the trumpeter of the band, Joey 'The Lips' Fagan (Johnny Murphy) who claims to have played for all the greats (The Beatles, Otis Redding, etc) yet might not have all his screws securely fastened. We have a laid back and easy going guitarist, a stylish and independent saxophone player, and of course the three female backup singers who perform a trifecta of vivacious and snappy beauty. And then of course there's the band manager, Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) who is a respectful guy who's only wish is to create great music. Such steadfast and differing personalities make for some of the most exciting and hilarious interactions I've ever seen.
And as icing on the cake, The Commitments has a soundtrack so incredible and so sincere that it almost borough a tear to my eye. Obviously in the movie itself the story plays out that this band is surprisingly incredible and contains a lot of unexpected potential. Yet amazingly enough, this would be true if the band weren't even a movie band. The music in The Commitments is absolutely incredible and the people in this movie can actually play. The highlight is definitely the lead singer who has a voice so rugged and so grand that my jaw practically dropped the first time he started singing. I would have to say that about 30 to 40 minutes of the film is just the band performing and there is nothing wrong with this, other than the fact I would have liked it to be even longer! Unlike certain genres of music that I can really only enjoy in the context of a good film (I'm looking at you country music) I could enjoy the music of The Commitments in any setting and I'm strongly considering buying the soundtrack.
The Commitments was an incredibly enjoyable movie to watch and it is definitely one of those I feel I could watch again and again and never get tired of its greatness. There is something so sincere and so real about this film that just makes it hard not to enjoy. The music is so great but even if it's not your style, I would still highly recommend checking out the film, just for the sake of watching a truly well made movie with a fun plot and exciting characters that make for just a purely great time.