5/5 Overlooked and underrated follow-up to 'The Commitments'
  by Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX)
Stephen Frears' adaptation of Roddy Doyle's novel "The Snapper" was released as a TV movie in the UK. Luckily, it's available on DVD. This is a first-class treat all around: Frears has a deserved pedigree as a director of the highest order (among my many favorites are Dirty Pretty Things, The Grifters and The Queen) and Colm Meaney (Intermission) is fabulous, like he always is. He's appeared in all three parts of Doyle's "Barrytown Trilogy" about the Rabbitte family (the trilogy consisting chronologically of The Commitments, this film and The Van [Region 2]). Frears also directed The Van.

This sequencing isn't as obvious in the films for the following reason: Wikipedia points out that "[t]he surname of the Rabbitte family had to be changed to Curley as 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the Rabbitte name from The Commitments, which featured the same characters."

The US cover box is misleading. Is that even Tina Kellegher hiding behind that sheet? It has nothing to do with the movie, which is gritty, funny and endearing. It doesn't require this misdirection, nor does the work of Stephen Frears need to be victimized by tricky marketing.

5/5 Fine movie , but why so many spoilers in other reviews?
  by David Thornton (Elizabeth, CO, USA)
Love this movie, although I wondered why the Rabbite family was changed to the Curley family. Then again, the original author, Roddy Doyle, was involved in writing this screenplay, so I'm fine with the name changes.

What I really want to do is ping on the many reviewers who spoil the plot by revealing how Sharon's pregnancy occurred. Yes, the old guy who is the father of one of Sharon's friends did brag about it, but the movie does not intend for the viewer to know for sure that he is the culprit; he might have been just making an empty boast. Instead, the viewer has, or should have, Sharon's perspective. At the beginning, her da' asks who the father is. Sharon first says, truthfully, "I don't know." Since this sounds shocking, she quickly changes her story to "I'm not tellin'."

The point is that she herself does not know who the father is. She can't remember. In order to make the revelation, near the end, of how the pregnancy occurred actually matter to the viewer, the viewer must remain in doubt throughout much of the movie: 'Does she really know and is not telling? But wait - didn't she first say she didn't know? Is the old guy really the father? Was he just falsely bragging and has now gotten in trouble for it? If he is the baby's father, how could Sharon not remember him?'

This is the mindset the viewer should be allowed to have while seeing the movie for the first time. Reviewers should not be spelling out Sharon's secret, which is unknown - even to herself - for much of the movie.

5/5 An old fave
  by Narcissa (Chicago, IL United States)
As an accidental mother-to-be myself, this film has come 'round again as a favorite. It's so important to keep a sense of humor in difficult situations ;-)

4/5 the snapper
  by Mary O. Sullivan (Cork Ireland)
colm meaney and helen kellegher are so funny in this film. The family live in an overcrowded home in dublin suburbs. So much is going on all the time. To me this film is a perfect mix of serious and funny and the beauty of having your own copy is, if the Irish accent is difficult to understand you can watch it again and again.It's the best laugh and has aged well, still as funny as it ever was.

5/5 "Well done, Sharon! Ya thick *****, ya!"
  by TheBanshee (United States)
I adored this movie; I've seen it probably 20 times over the past several years. Colm Meany is very funny as the head of a working class family, the Curleys. One day his eldest daughter Sharon announces to them that she is pregnant. Despite the attempts of her father and friends to learn who the father is, Sharon keeps mum, and eventually we find out why.
The strength of the Curleys is their ability to hold their heads up and laugh when the old gossips and biddies in the town (some of whom, I suspect have written some of these reviews) snub Sharon in the street. Sharon's parents aren't thrilled about the pregnancy at first, but, bottom line, she's their blood, and "**** the neighbors!"
To say this film isn't funny because of unwed pregancy and drinking/smoking during pregnancy is like saying "Catch-22" or "M*A*S*H" weren't funny because they were about war. But those films were only partly about war, and Sharon's pregnancy is just a part of the film.
This film is warm, unsentimental, and funny as hell. I love the Curleys, and you will too. Colm Meany is wonderful as always, and Tina Kellegher is wonderful as Sharon.