Out now in cinemas is the Irish gangster film Pixie. Starring Olivia Cooke, Bend Hardy and Daryl McCormack. Pixie follows the titular character played by Olivia Cooke in rural Ireland. Our young heroine has aspirations to leave Ireland and make a new home for herself in San Francisco.
When two guys she knows, Frank (Ben Hardy)and Harland (Daryl McCormack) come across a large stash of drugs, she seizes her opportunity to go off on a big adventure and maybe, in the end, find herself in a better situation.
Pixie, she’s a kind of magic
At the centre of this film is Olivia Cooke. She is phenomenal as the titular character, she is a force of nature and is filled with that je ne sais quoi. Whenever she was on screen I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She is funny, whip-smart and is nobodies fool. She is always on top of things and it’s great to see such a performance like that.
Complimenting her are her two co-stars Ben Hardy and Daryl McCormack as Frank and Harland respectively. These two jokers are stuck in a rut in their lives, going nowhere and with this large stash of cocaine they hope they can get to someplace better.
Then when you mix them in with Pixie it is a lot of fun. It is sadly the rest of the film where it all begins to crumble. The genre of Irish gangsters hiding in plain sight is played out at this point. So much so that when the climax of the film begins it feels like an SNL sketch complete with Alec Baldwin with a semi-decent ‘Oirish’ accent.
The magic of Ireland on full show
I’m not sure if I’m biased because I live here but I never get bored of Irish scenery. The cinematography of Pixie is stellar and when you have the three leads and their great rapport as well it’s a real treat.
The sad part is with this great trio at its centre Pixie itself is a predictable and painfully average film. These three actors deserve to be in a much better film. It’s the fact that I knew where every character was going to end up. There is a mystery in this story and unfortunately, it is wafer-thin. It is put forward in the third act and when it arrives you immediately know all the players. It’s a shame because if the film had stayed simple and been a kind of crime road trip story I think I could have gotten behind it more.
Pixie is a fun film and is something a lot of people will enjoy, but it is nothing new or especially original.
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