Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Jimmy Rabbitte, just a thick-ya out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.
The Commitments is elevated above all by its remarkable ensemble performances — the largely non-professional cast deliver utterly convincing, naturalistic work, and the musical performances are genuinely electrifying. The plot is a fairly familiar rise-and-fall band story, competently structured but not surprising. Cinematography is functional and gritty, capturing working-class Dublin effectively without being particularly distinguished. Novelty is moderate — transplanting American soul music to a north Dublin housing estate is a fresh cultural collision, and Alan Parker's handling of the material gives it a distinct flavour, but the template isn't groundbreaking. The ending is the weakest element: the band's dissolution feels abrupt and somewhat deflating, leaving threads unresolved and the emotional payoff undersold.