An Everlasting Piece Details

Eighties Belfast is the somewhat unlikely setting for director Barry Levinson's follically challenged comedy. Catholic Colm (Barry McEvoy, who also wrote the hilarious script) and Protestant George (Brian F O'Byrne) work as hairdressers in a prison asylum, relieving their boredom with lame attempts at poetry. When deranged hairpiece kingpin Billy Connolly (an all-too-brief cameo) is incarcerated (after reputedly scalping four of his clients), the pair decide to go into business as the “Piece People”. With much-needed help from McEvoy's mouthy girlfriend (an ebullient performance from Anna Friel), they soon find themselves in competition with some ludicrously named rivals. Levinson's affection for his home town of Baltimore is a key feature in many of his films including Diner and Tin Men, but he seems equally at home here. Mining a broad vein of comedy, the action moves swiftly from the frantic pursuit of a wig-stealing dog to a bizarre roadside encounter with the IRA — without descending into total farce. McEvoy's script falters slightly when sectarianism rears its ugly head, yet this unpretentious comedy still delivers plenty of laughs, right up to a gleefully manic Connolly in the final frames.

"...It's a comedy of high and zany spirits that effortlessly touches on matters of moral choice, reconciliation and forgiveness and the value of the generous gesture..."