Jump

Kieron J. Walsh

BY Robert BellPublished Sep 23, 2012

Initially, Jump (an Irish variation on Doug Liman's Go) makes the mistake of throwing its message out there without any context. Dressed as an angel, an angst-ridden Greta (Nichola Burley) spews out suicidal ideations and a bit of surface existential twaddle while preparing to "jump" from the Derry Peace Bridge.

Her sense of purposelessness and hopelessness is challenged by a coincidental meeting with the beaten and bleeding Pearce (Martin McCann), who, incidentally, had harsh dealings with Greta's mob boss father, giving them a unique bond and — you guessed it — a sense of purpose.

Fortunately, once this seemingly predictable bit of idealism passes, an intricate plot and an abundance of hilarious encounters and coincidences compensate for the bit of familiar blandness at the beginning.

Based on the stage play by Lisa McGee, Kieron J. Walsh's hyperbolic tale of intersecting lives gone insane mixes Greta and Pearce with father Frank Feeney's (Lalor Roddy) quest to find the person that stole money from his safe.

Enlisting henchmen Ross (Ciaran McMenamin) and Jack (Packy Lee), narrow escapes and coercive beatings abound, leading back to the two friends that Greta ditched for the evenings New Year's festivities: Marie (Charlene McKenna) and Dara (Valene Kane). After failing to shoplift liquor and dancing indifferently at Frank Feeney's bar, they wind up in a car accident that brings everything full circle.

This latter storyline between the very different Dara and Marie stands out and drives the film forward. As Dara makes fun of Marie for bringing a purse full of snacks to a club and Marie bails Dara out of an altercation with the pissed-off girlfriend of one of her fleeting flirtations, it's clear their idiosyncratic chemistry and knack for comic timing could easily have sustained the film on its own.

But, eventually, Greta and Pearce come back to fulfill the obligations of the central plot, moping, whining and presumably finding love, after knowing each other for all of two hours.

Still, despite the varying, uneven storylines, everything does fit together quite nicely, providing a few laughs and shocks along the way.
(Hotshot)

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